A bucket of water

That's the Rangers -- the freezing cold bucket of water that hit the Royals in the face the last two days. Riding high off a sweep of the Evil Empire and an opener win against Texas, it only took Jose Lima and Kenny Rogers to slap the Royals back to reality. Lima was once again given a multiple-run lead but crapped it away, as usual, on Saturday. Of course, uber-manager Buddy Bell has already said he plans to start Lima again. Does Lima have blackmail material on the Royals or what? Dump his sorry ass!! No, wait, instead, let's DFA Ryan Jensen, who beat the Cards and Yankees and keep Lima, right? That's what the masterminds of the Royals did. Hopefully Jensen will accept an assignment to the minors. Steve Stemle also came back to earth after a great start in KC as he was tagged for 6 ER in the 14-9 loss. The Royals actually keep the offensive momentum going as DeJesus, Brown and Long all had 3 hit games but the pitching staff crumbles.

Then it goes to today's game. Rogers shut the resurgent Royal offense down and the pitching staff continued Saturday's performance. Greinke was smoked for 7 runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 and only Joe McEwing did anything on offense, going 3-3. The rest of the team had 2 hits. At least Bell had the nerve to actually defend his team after Cordero's HBP on Costa and the ensuing Cordero crotch-grab after the end of the game. We need some solidarity this season.

Interleague play cranks back up Tuesday after a day off as KC travels to Pac Bell Park to take on the Giants. D.J. Carrasco gets another start -- let's go for 3 good ones in a row. Speculation on-line says that J.P. Howell may be called up for a start next weekend. Can we let him develop a little more rather than calling him up after a handful of AA starts? Maybe if clueless Allard Baird hadn't wasted money on Lima and displayed some evidence every now and then that he knows what he's doing we wouldn't be rushing guys. Bell and Baird could end up being a nasty combination.