Two games is a winning streak. Yes it is. You know how Tiger Woods won four majors in a row, but they weren't in the same year, so they called it a "Tiger Slam?" Two straight wins is a "Royal Winning Streak." 4-3 over Detroit on Wednesday and 11-7 over the Twins on Friday. And I'm celebrating.
Both wins were gritty too. Both times they struggled early, got down, fought back and prevailed. This one was particularly clutch. because this win--combined with Philadelphia's loss--means the Royals no longer have baseball's worst record. (You know the guys were high-fiving each other in the clubhouse when they learned that.)
Big days from several Royals in the series opener vs. the Twins--Teahen got three hits, Sweeney with a shot, DeJesus kept rolling with three more hits. But the best thing that happened on offense was Reggie Sanders, wearing Jackie Robinson's 42, hitting a prodigious homer that missed making the left field fountain by maybe a fraction of an inch, and then pointing to the sky as he touched home plate. And in case you weren't positive he was giving respect to Robinson with that move, he flashed a grin to the RSTN camera when he went to the dugout, then turned around and pointed to the 42 on his back. It's amazing how quickly you can become a fan of a player.
I've been pretty "bleh" about Sanders to this point. He was one of those "veteran leader" signings, and just seems like a placeholder until Billy Butler forces his way onto the major league roster. But now I'm a Reggie Sanders fan. Sometimes it seems like athletes are are just glory suckers. Trying to Hoover up every little bit of props they can get--and whining at any slight, however minuscule. But for Sanders to take his piece of commonplace glory--the home run--and immediately allude to someone bigger and more important...to really show how honored he was to be wearing Robinson's number, well, that really got me.
Random thoughts about the last several games.
There's been a lot of talk about Mike Sweeney's slower bat these days, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. Joe Posnanski referenced an "unamed scout" in his blog saying the same thing as the Toronto scout in Bob Dutton's article. (In fact so much the same thing, that I'm guessing it's the same scout.)
Clearly Sweeney has had his (and yours and my) share of injuries, so perhaps they've taken their toll and he's done. But his batspeed doesn't look any slower to me. Besides that, it's hard to blame Sweeney when no one on the team, save DeJesus, has been hitting on a game-to-game basis.
Baseball scouts have a kind of mystical quality in the abstract, but really, can't we all see that Sweeney's started terribly? And yet I've watched Sweeney go through plenty of horrible stretches--it's just that when you're young and and healthy no one says that your bat speed has slowed just because you're in a 1 for 21.
I'm going to go ahead and put my considerable, five post blogging reputation up against these "unnamed scouts," and say that Sweeney's still a productive hitter who's been in a slump.
Who are you going to believe?
The Royals scored three insurance runs in the eighth inning of their 11-7 win over the Twins with only one hit. And it was a leadoff single. Here's how it went: Single, wild pitch, Hit-by-Pitch, HBP (when Teahen was trying to bunt), walk (RBI), wild pitch--run scores, Sac Fly where the run scores when the catcher loses the ball.
Unbelievable. But mostly because I couldn't believe the Royals weren't in the field during that rally. That described about 25% of their losses from last year. I mean, I'm astonished that Andrew Sisco and Ambiorix Burgos weren't on the mound for some of that.
John Buck and Jason LaRue are still splitting time--almost exactly 50-50. Buddy Bell went into Spring Training saying that he wanted a starter to emerge, but they played similarly and so Bell opted to split the playing time. Well, now Buck has an OPS about 900 points higher than LaRue's--and I'm not exaggerating, it's about 900 points higher--and yet they're still trading starts. If only Buck had hit so well in the all-important exhibition games...
During the team's horrific offensive start, I kept hearing "hitting is contagious," and it sure looks like it--the Royals have scored 26 runs in their last four games, after scoring only 29 in their previous 11. My concern, though, is since the Royals knew it was contagious, what were they doing about it?
Right in their midst they had David DeJesus, who has had seven multi-hit games already this season--whose batting average hasn't dipped below .321 since their second series. Why haven't I heard any stories about teammates walking up to DeJesus and deep kissing him? Or at least begging him to sneeze in their face?
Apparently DeJesus' teammates have lackadaisically waited for his hitting contagion to meander airborne through the clubhouse and randomly alight on them.
And that's just not good enough.
They knew he had the fever, and yet no one was willing to go that extra mile. Unless there's something Bob Dutton isn't telling us...
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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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