Wild one

For those of you who turned off the game disgusted after Zack Greinke pitched BP for 5 innings, you missed out. A near-miracle 8-run comeback in the 8th and 9th tied the game at 11 and sent it into extras when MacDougal did his pressure game thing and gave up a gopher ball to Troy Glaus to end it in 10. Good Lord, Greinke looked bad tonight. 4.1 IP 15 hits 11 R 11 ER 2 BB 2 K 3 HRA 6.01 ERA now. 2 Ks? The D-Backs -- especially Shawn Green -- teed off, they weren't just getting dribbler base hits, these were line drives: doubles, homers. The only two Arizona players who didn't look like all-stars were Jose Cruz Jr. and Glaus, who looked helpless against Greinke. Greinke, meanwhile, had that same look on his face the whole time, half-dazed, little emotion showing. The bullpen came in afterwards and didn't completely stop the bleeding Greinke started but none of the relievers was charged with a run until MacDougal's groover. Greinke, on the good side, looked good at the plate and smoked a Russ Ortiz pitch for a homer to CF, but that's the only good thing that came out of his performance. Blithering idiot Bob Davis said it was the first Royal pitcher HR since 1971. Terrence Long was the KC player with the best game early on. He was the only one really lacing the ball through the first 7 innings, other than Greinke. In the 8th, the Royals' offense flipped its switch to "ON" down 11-3. Gotay cracked a 2-run shot, DeJesus came through with a big 2-run triple and Teahen drew a tough bases-loaded walk from lefty sidearmer Javier Lopez to make the score 11-9. DeJesus came through again and almost tied the game in the 9th -- the only reason it didn't was Glaus' good play at third. Then with KC down to its last strike Matt Stairs hit a single to tie the game but the Royals couldn't get any more. After that the Royals didn't threaten in the 10th and MacDougal served up the HR to the first batter of the 10th. Tough loss but hopefully this weakened the D-Backs' bullpen for the next two games. There's no way KC should have been close at the end but they were. They need to keep fighting.

That sort of brings me to a sticking point -- the broadcast team of Bob Davis and Splittorff sucks. Number 1, their banter is stupid, neither really says anything revealing. Number 2, isn't the AFLAC trivia question supposed to be for the people at home watching? Every night the two boobs sit there and answer the damn question on-air. I've never seen that. The Cubs and Braves announcers may throw out an obvious part to the answer but never answer the whole thing. Davis and Split answer it right away, like it's a test for them. IDIOTS! Tonight's question was "Name the 3 players on the KC and ARI rosters who were on the 2001 D-Backs World Champion team." Within 10 seconds they say Luis Gonzalez, Brian Anderson and Craig Counsell, which of course is the right answer -- Anderson was the trick part the producers are counting on you leaving out. Why not just say Gonzalez and maybe even Counsell and leave the rest for the viewing public to mull over. For God's sake, it's 11-2, give people any reason to keep watching. They're brain-numbingly dumb to listen to. Then they'll describe things happening on screen wrong. A ball is hit off the base of the wall and Splittorff will say it was hit high off the wall. Berroa hit a hard liner that DBacks SS Alex Cintron speared to lead off the game and, later, Teahen hits a mid-range blooper barely over Counsell's glove as he backpedals and Davis says "That was just like Berroa's hit in the 1st." No it wasn't. Berroa's was hit three times harder. A liner and blooper aren't the same. AARRGGHH!

Berroa came back to earth tonight with an 0-fer-4. Let's see if he can get started again tomorrow. DeJesus' big triple was his only hit of the game. Stairs' big hit was his only of the game. Long, the hottest hitter in the lineup, was pulled for Graffanino to exploit the lefty-righty matchup. Not a bad decision with Long against lefties, especially ones who throw funny like Lopez. Teahen and Gotay had 2-hit games and Gotay's foul-pole HR was a big shot that jumpstarted the late surge. Costa was 2-5 with his first XBH, a double and drew a big walk late in the game. Buck was also 2-4 and is actually threatening .220. It was nice to see the offense keep up the good work even though Greinke looked like he was pitching FOR the D-Backs. I was waiting for the grounds crew to roll out the pitching screen before the bottom of an inning. Baird's policy of rushing players thru the system continues tomorrow as J.P. Howell makes his first start after 3 AA starts and 1 AAA start. Ah, seasoning. Let's hope he proves he was worth the call-up. Then "the ace" D.J. Carrasco takes the mound for the series finale Sunday. It'll be interesting to see how Howell does and if Carrasco can keep it up.