29 May 2005

Five in a row, ugly one tonight

A 14-1 whipping at the hand of the Los Angeles Angels left me with mixed feelings tonight. On one hand it's embarrassing that the Royals got treated like a AAAA team again and the Royals are now the worst they have been in the team's history, record-wise. On the other hand, I have Chone Figgins on one of my fantasy teams and he had a nice night. Ryan Jensen got treated like a minor league call-up/fifth starter, which he is, as did Ambiorix Burgos and Leo Nunez. At least Steve Stemle had another nice outing -- 2 1/3 IP, 3 Ks, 2 hits, 1 BB, 0 R. Meanwhile the offense slapped out a total of 6 hits and left 10 on base. The Angels had that many extra-base hits (6). I'll repeat my mantra for the Royals currently -- Another loss may mean no more Schaefer. It may force the team to bring in a decent manager for the first time since Howser was forced quit and McRae was fired. Tell me again why he pinch-hit for Sweeney with McEwing? And why bat Marrero for DeJesus?

At least Berroa didn't commit a backbreaking error tonight, but then again he didn't have a chance. He did go 0-3 with 3 LOB, trumped only by Stairs' and Buck's 0-4 with 3 LOB. The team isn't inspiring great feelings about the coming weeks and months. It was also nice to see Marrero go 0-2 in the PH/CF (CF???) role and lower his stellar BA to .159.

I wonder how much effect Friday's collapse will have on the team's psyche. It can't be good in terms of confidence. I also wonder how this losing is affecting the younger players' thoughts on the team. If this goes on for a couple seasons I can see some problems arising with resigning players no matter how bright the future may look. I guess this is one of those games the Royals need to just put behind them and focus on Sunday's game. They beat Colon around once, maybe they can repeat that Sunday afternoon. Runelvys needs to step up. Let's head to the home series against the Yankees with a solid end to the road trip.

2 comments:

Daniel said...

I excused the pinch-hits in last night's game -- I'm assuming Schaefer, for unknown reasons, was just following the lead of Mike Scoscia when he started subbing bench players for his starters. I suppose Schaefer didn't want to be outdone, so he got his starters off the field...to save them from more embarrassment, I guess.

iberoyalsfan said...

Nice site. I will link your site to mine. Maybe some day we will have something positive to talk about. Right now its shameful whats happened to this franchise.