Nickeled and Dimed

The Royals, as the title says, got nickeled and dimed to death tonight as the White Sox hit 10 singles to score 5 runs and Jon Garland held the Royals to 4 measly hits -- 3 singles and a solo homer by Terrence Long in the 9th. Greinke pitched well even though he was credited with 5 ER over 5 1/3 IP. 8 Ks, 1 BB so he was obviously locating OK. Also no XBH. Garland won his 12th game of a season for the fourth time in his career -- all four 12th wins against KC. Weird. Also RP Jonah Bayliss gets called up for KC (again, why do we even have AAA? It's like the recycle bin on my computer. We just put our castoffs there until we either dump them or try to salvage them. So much for it being for development.) -- anyway, Bayliss gets called up and there's nothing like easing him in to game action. He comes in for the 7th to face Iguchi, Frank Thomas and Konerko -- and sets them down in order, including his first MLB K on Thomas with a knee buckling slider. Iguchi creamed a pitch Bayliss left in over the plate but Long ran it down just short of the track in left. From Bayliss' reaction I think he thought it was gone. I thought it was for a second.

With 4 hits it's hard to find an offensive standout for the game since only 4 guys got hits. Emil Brown, Teahen, Long and Alberto Castillo. Scott Podsednik almost out-hit KC on his own with 3 hits. Another good pitcher shuts KC down. It gets no better in tomorrow's getaway game with Buehrle taking the hill. KC needs another above-his-head start from J.P. Howell. That's a tall order with the White Sox O, tho. Bayliss, Jimmy Gobble and Justin Huber (who flew out in his first MLB AB in the 9th) have joined the team while Mr. DL Mike Sweeney, Affeldt (Mr. DL Jr.) and Burgos all hit the infirmary. Burgos has a "strained right rotator cuff" so we'll see how long he's out. So much for the trade bait of Sweeney and Affeldt, too. Ken Harvey was also moved to the 60-day DL so we won't be seeing him play for KC, Omaha or anyone else likely soon. No big loss there. Maybe Allard could have finagled some kind of prospect out of some other team for him, though. He IS an all-star, after all.

Lots of people are pointing to the resiliency of the Royals team lately, which I as much as anyone have liked to see. But after a certain point, when guys are getting hurt and the losses keep piling up, when does the team get tired of fighting back and just get beat down over and over again? When do the young players decide they'll do anything to get out of KC and play for a winning organization? Sooner or later, to be winners, this team is going to have to be able to beat good teams and good pitchers, not bottom feeders. Clemens, Oswalt and now Garland have shut this team down. The NY and LA sweeps were promising but it's hard to see this team keeping that up over the long haul. Oh well. Nebraska got knocked out of the CWS today so let's get Alex Gordon signed and in the minors and look for another answer. Billy Butler is back and in LF at High Desert. The days of winning, even in the wake of what has been a good June, still seem so far away.