Kansas City at Twins. Twins 3, Royals 12

WRITTEN BY bubblemint

Apparently, The Royals decided not to go down easy.

"We won't get swept again" was the rallying cry shouted by the boys in blue (or, if you prefer, the girls in blue, as they have been called at times by their very own fans) as they took the field on Sunday afternoon.

For Twins fans, it was not a pretty game to watch, though I'm sure Royals fans thought it was quite lovely. As Minnesota nice goes, I guess it was nice of our Twins to leave them with a glimmer of hope for next year.

With a complete game from Jimmy Gobble, and a little help from the magnet implanted in the glove of his shortstop Angel Berroa, the Royals turned in a solid fielding performance, getting Twins hitters to hit ten ground ball outs throughout the course of the game. The ninth one was rather questionable, leaving our own JustInCredible grumbling, with nothing left to the imagination if you can read lips, as he walked back to dugout in the bottom of the 9th.

But at that point, it really wouldn't have mattered too much anyway, as the score was 12 to 1 in the Royals favor.

That said, let's summarize the game for the Twins side:

The Good:

-- Umpire Gerry Davis was at 3rd base today, and he managed to make no calls against the Twins. In fact, he really did pretty well this entire series.

Could it be he has gotten past whatever it is that has been irking him when he officiates our games?

Or maybe the last few times it's been so obviously blatant that he got in trouble
with the Supreme Council of Umpires??

We can only hold out hope.

-- Kyle Lohse pitched two scoreless innings. Only two, but hey, it's better than none, right?

-- Joe Roa came in to take over in the 4th, and pitched into the 6th, allowing only 2 hits, and no runs. More on him later, in the section entitled "The Ugly".

-- Pat Borders, one of "the ancient ones" as some like to call him, came through with an rbi double in the bottom of the 5th, assuring Twins fans that, though he might get a complete game against us, there was no way in hell that young Mr. Gobble would get a complete game shut out in revenge against the Twins from that series in July....so there!!

-- Matt Guerrier came in and struck out 4 over the course of his 3 innings of work.

-- Terry Tiffeeeeerific has got the pop up foul ball catching thing down. I notice that JustInCredible seems to be doing a bit better in that department the last few days too. Perhaps Terry has been giving him a few pointers?? He also had a great Koskie-esque diving catch in the 7th, firing to first to get Relaford, even though it did score a run anyway.

-- The little rally in the bottom of the 9th. It didn't make me believe we could win, but at least a little life came into a couple of bats. Could be just because the Gobbler was wearing down, but we'll take it either way.

-- Jason Kubel had a nice hit. Guzzy and JJ each got their second hits of the game.

The Bad:

-- After giving up a 2 run homer to David DeJesus in the 3rd, Kyle put two Royals hitters on in the 4th inning. Then Desi Relaford lined a pitch back to him, which hit off his glove and got him in the left shoulder.

He managed to convince Gardy to leave him out there, only to have Stewart miss a fly ball catch, allowing two runs to score. Kyle then proceeded to give up a single to Matt Stairs, scoring another run.

At that point, his day was done. At 3 and 2/3rd's inning, his shortest outing of the year.

This does not bode well for you to be the number 3 starter in the playoffs Kyle.

Just you wait until Batgirl gets home. I think another phone call might be in order.

-- Aaron Fultz came in to replace Roa in the 6th, after Joa managed to hit David
DeJesus with a pitch, and then give up a single to Nunez. Fultz promptly got a ground ball out from Stairs, which unfortunately scored another run, then gave up an rbi single to Smiley Joe Randa, making the score 8 to 1 Royals.

In the 7th, Fultz came back, much to my dismay, and put two Royals on base before Gardy had the sense to get him off the mound.

-- Matt Guerrier replaced him, and gave up a walk to DeJesus, then a groundout to Relaford, scoring Berroa. A single to Nunez scored two more, before finally getting himself out of it.

-- In the 8th inning, MG gave Smiley Joe Randa a pitch to make him laugh himself silly as he rounded the bases after knocking it into the seats, making the score 12 to 1 Royals.

The Ugly:

-- Joe Roa's new facial hair. I know he's probably trying to reduce the perception by myself, and perhaps others as well, that he looks a bit like Snow White's little pal Dopey in the Disney movie, but it's not working Joa. Really, it's not. Dopey would look almost as silly as you do with that little goatee.

Posted by el diablo at September 5, 2004 09:24 PM