In Zack Greinke's first start of the season there was pressure, sure. Pressure to show his great Spring was no fluke. Pressure to prove that he was past his depression and social anxiety. Pressure to match one of Japan's (and perhaps the world's) greatest pitchers, Daisuke Matsuzaka. But that difficulty paled compared to the strain that Dice-K was under--millions of his countrymen watching at three in morning. Seemingly millions more countrymen with press passes and telephoto lenses at the game. And that's after a Spring of Dice-K-O-Rama, which followed a Winter of "Who Wants to Make Dice-K a Millionaire." No, Zack had pressure, but he's a smart young man--he knew that the spotlight--while on him, was really aimed at another.
But Greinke's start today was a different story. Because this pressure wasn't about what anybody thought of him, or whether people believed in him or not. This was basic baseball pressure. It was about breaking a three game losing streak. It was about making teammates and fans forget about the crushing loss the night before--and the heartbreaking 9th inning of the game before that. It was about changing the momentum when the Royals looked to be hurtling off their usual April cliff. And just like in his first start, Greinke was outstanding, limiting the Blue Jays to one run in six innings in the Royals 6-3 victory.
Greinke seems to be specializing in striking out the other teams best hitter--looking. He got Ortiz looking twice in his first start (and if you want to argue with me that Manny's really Boston's best hitter...well, okay) and he got Frank Thomas looking twice today.
Total Aside: There's nothing better than watching Frank Thomas jacknife out of the way of a pitch that's over the inner-half of the plate on strike three, and then witnessing his utter shock that the umpire has the gall to ring him up. I actually understand his surprise--no one called him out for years when he made that ridiculous move. But then his play eroded in Chicago and he stopped getting that call. Somehow he made a comeback in Oakland, landed a big contract with Toronto and clearly he thinks he should be getting that call again. No, Frank, no you shouldn't. You never should have gotten that call in the first place. But keep leaping to saftey on those strikes--like a little girl who's seen a spider while jump roping, and just can't let go of the rope mid-jump--it always makes me laugh.
Extra Bonus Aside: Tom Hallion, the homeplate ump, could not have been more enthusiastic in his called third strikes. His signature strikeout call includes him twisting his body sideways and thrusting his left fist up towards his throat while his head actually tilts skyward. Something tells me Hallion releives the boredom of the road with a lot of air guitar.
Back to Greinke: In his first start against Boston, the Red Sox were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position--today Toronto was 1 for 9. And that's a particularly good thing since batters leading off innings have been swatting him around--6 hits in 7 AB's in the first game, and 3 for 6 today. (Including a bizarre amount of doubles. He's allowed 5 doubles to lead off innings, yet only one of those guys have scored--when Julio Lugo went for a steal of third and John Buck threw the ball into left field.)
Zack's doing his best pitching when his opponents have a guy standing behind him.
It wasn't all Greinke today, though. Not when Alex Gordon breaks a 1 for 24 slump with a majestic home run to right. Ryan Lefebvre, the Royals excellent radio/tv announcer, said as Gordon was circling the bases, "The sound you hear is Alex Gordon exhaling." But I'll go him one further--it seemed as if the whole team exhaled. After Gordon's two run shot the team tacked on two more runs in the inning--and that four-run inning is their biggest outburst of the season. Prior to that the Royals had only put up "crooked numbers" in three other innings (out of 66).
It seems--after only eight games--as if the Royals have hitched their wagon to Gordon's star even more than it first appeared. Look rookies struggle--it's almost axiomatic. Most teams start their rookies off batting in the lower third of the order, hope they don't get overwhelmed and try to keep the spolight off them until they get over their "upper deck syndrome." Not the Royals. They hit him fifth, where he seemingly never bats without men on base, they move their best player to new position to accomodate him--they put the team on his shoulders right from the get-go.
So...Alex struggles, the team struggles. Alex hits a shot, the teams wins. It would have been nice if one of the veterans had been able to carry the team a while, at least until Gordon knew how much to tip the bellhop on roadtrips. But no one did--so apparently that's Alex's job. He put a jolt in one ball today--and it jolted his teammates. Maybe he'll be ready to do that on a consistent basis soon. I hope so, because it looks like the team's waiting for him.
Well, maybe not everyone on the team is waiting. Every fifth day it looks like battler will be taking the mound. Every fifth day, at least, Greinke will have Gordon's back.
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A Kansas City Royals (and KC area sports) Blog
About Royal Pain
An expansion team in 1969, the Kansas City Royals quickly became one of baseball's elite franchises. From 1976 to 1985 they went to the playoffs seven times. They participated in two World Series, and won one of them, in '85. They had a superstar player in George Brett (and several other excellent players), they employed topnotch managers like Dick Howser and Whitey Herzog, but mostly they had an owner, Ewing Kauffman, who was heavily invested in the team and the community.
After '85 the Royals couldn't sustain their great success, they became a solid, above average team for several years. But in 1993 Ewing Kauffman died, and the team was held in trust by a community foundation, with David Glass as the Chariman of the Board of Directors. The Royals foundered during their time in trust, and have remained submerged under the ownership of Glass, who bought the team in 2000.
The Royals had a winning record in '93, and have had only one winning record since--10 years after Ewing Kauffman's death in 2003. In fact, in the 11 full seasons that have been played since Ewing Kauffman's death, the Royals--whose name once eptiomized their lofty status in major league baseball--have averaged 94 losses.
And the fans have been subjected to Royal Pain.
But in 2007 Royal fans have a reason to hope. A new General Manager, Dayton Moore, has apparently wrested from David Glass the power to make baseball decisions, Glass has opened the coffers and spent money on free agents, and the Royals best prospect, Alex Gordon, has made the opening opening day roster. And he reminds a lot of people of a young George Brett.
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About Me
- D Snell
- A displaced Royals fan on the West Coast, who often thinks he spends too much time thinking about his various teams--the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas Jayhawks, and of course the Royals. Especially when they're crushingly defeated--whether in the playoffs, the NCAA tournament, or just on a day-to-day basis, as the Royals have been for the last 15 years or so. At those times he wonders if Jerry Seinfeld was right--is he really just rooting for laundry, after all? Is there any point to it? Shouldn't he be doing something more productive with the precious time that he's allotted? But then he gets over it. Mostly.
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