Royals have a bad time, lose 7-4 to Tigers

My wife and I have had a large cardboard box sitting on our deck for a few days as we waited for our weekly pickup. When I went out this evening to dispatch the infernal box, I immediately caught sight of a silky strand starting at the top of the box. My eyes drifted upward to a quarter-sized spider still spinning its web using our power line as its "base". I used to be afraid of spiders until I met my wife, who cringes at the mere mention of the arachnid. I can now simply marvel at the wonderful webs they build as well as thank them for their hard work at keeping the other bugs away.

Unfortunately, I had to remove the box to which the web was attached. When I did so, the spider lost not a single beat in its web-spinning process.

Similarly, the Royals have not lost a single beat since losing their cardboard box base, Alex Gordon. Gordon went down on July 8th. The Royals have gone 19-12 starting July 9th, the first game without him. The Royals have continued spinning a web of wins, and they are catching the bugs.

Not tonight.

The scoring started quickly. Edinson Volquez let the first two batters of the game reach base on a single and an error by Volquez himself. Anthony Gose scored after Volquez induced two sacrifice flies. Volquez also let the first two hitters of the second inning reach base on a double and a single. A run scored on the single. Thankfully, a double play and a strikeout got Volquez out of the inning.

The Royals responded in the bottom of the third with two runs of their own. Alex Rios led off the inning with a double. Alcides Escobar tripled on a line drive to left-center field, but I'm not sure he would have been safe had Jose Iglesias nailed the relay. Iglesias spiked the ball instead, and Escobar ended up scoring on the play.

The Royals scored more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Lorenzo Cain doubled to lead off the inning and stole third (that dude is ON FIRE!). Eric Hosmer hit a double of his own to score Cain. After two walks, Omar Infante hit a sacrifice fly to score Hosmer. The score was 4-2 Royals.

Volquez rolled along just fine until the eighth inning. His pitch count still relatively low, Volquez stayed in the game for the eighth. He did not record a single out. A single, a walk, another single, and a double tied the score at 4-4. Only after the double did Ned Yost remove Volquez for Kelvin Herrera. Herrera got only one out before giving up two more runs on a single and a fielder's choice in which no one was out. On a grounder to first, Hosmer decided to throw home to get Ian Kinsler. Kinsler was safe. Herrera would load the bases before getting two strikeouts to end the inning.

Just for good measure, Chris Young gave up a run in the ninth on a single and a double to Ian Kinsler and Victor Martinez.

In the bottom of the ninth, Bruce Rondon came in to try to close it out. He did not have much control, since he hit Alex Rios and walked Infante, but the Royals could not make anything of it. The Tigers horrid bullpen held tonight.

I checked the spider and its web before going to sleep tonight. The spider was still spinning its web like nothing had happened. Everything will be fine.