Honestly, we played the Royals last night, and Zack Greinke was not on the mound. We should’ve won. By a lot. Instead we lost by a final score of 8-6. And it had nothing to do with Brad Penny. He hasn’t pitched past the sixth inning once this year, and yesterday he only pitched through five, but that’s okay with me if he holds the opposition to three runs. Incidentally, that’s why his ERA is so high even though he’s been consistently solid. He doesn’t allow many runs but his outings are short. Anyway, we should be able to score more than three runs, and we have the best bullpen in the Majors, which can handle four innings of work with a lead. Right? Apparently not.
Manny Delcarmen came in and only stayed for two-thirds of the sixth, allowing two runs in the process. Somehow he was rewarded with a hold. Masterson earned a blown save and a loss when he allowed two more runs while trying to finish the inning. Ramirez allowed one run. Bard didn’t allow any. Papelbon didn’t even make an appearance. So now we’re tied with the Evil Empire for first place, which is not a predicament I particularly enjoy. Seriously. And we have the Twins to thank for that one, who allowed themselves to be swept at home. By the way, did you know Twins fans refer to their team as the Twinkies? Basically, that means a bunch of pre-packaged, pre-processed, and preserved cream-filled desserts were just swept by a bunch of greedy multimillionaires in striped pants. And we have to pay for it. Where is the justice. And as if that weren’t enough, we lost the best home record in the AL. Honestly, I don’t understand how anyone anywhere could ever have a better home record than us. Granted, both are temporary, but it’s all just very uncomfortable.
The silver lining to this whole thing is, without a doubt, the 300th career home run hit by one David Ortiz! Big Papi, ladies and gentlemen! First inning, Youk on first, one out, and a ball down and away. And I thought he was trying to take the skin off the ball. It just ended up in the Monster seats. He was all over it, as Eck likes to say. I mean he had it. And it cleared the yard for the 300th home run of his illustrious career. Congratulations! And many more to come. How impressive has he been lately. Think about what it was like watching him bat in the beginning of the season, and think of what it’s like now. He’s come a very long way in a very short time; already he’s been able to accumulate eleven home runs and forty-four RBIs. And I’d say he’s most definitely got a whole lot left in the tank. He’s on pace to have one ridiculous second half.
Speaking of home runs, Pedroia the Destroyah got in on the action as well. His three-for-five night included a towering home run also into the Monster seats on a high fastball in the fifth. He’s had only two home runs for a while, and then all of a sudden he’s hit two in the past week to make it four. He just smacked it out of there. Bay hit an RBI single, Youk went two for five with an RBI, and Kotsay had an RBI, which makes six. Green was caught stealing and picked off, and Tek made a throwing error.
Last but not least, we should probably address all of this Roy Halladay nonsense. We do not need another pitcher. We need another hitter. We will win the World Series with our current pitching staff, which eventually can include Clay Buchholz and Dice-K, if he gets his act together. Besides, in order for JP Ricciardi to seriously consider forking him over, we’d have to present quite the package. Which would have to include the likes of Buchholz, Michael Bowden, Lars Anderson, and Casey Kelly. At least. And trading those guys away would literally be trading away our future. Theo would never fall for that. Not for a pitcher who’s already more than thirty years old, and not at a time when our weakness is offense, not defense. In Theo we trust. He’s got a good head on his shoulders.
Lester will face Brian Bannister tonight, and we have to win this one. We have to. Falling into second place just before the All-Star break is not a good idea. Obviously it won’t be the end of the world, but it’s not a good idea at all. We’ll need Lester to be on his game. The sad part is that Bannister and Lester have similar records and ERAs, Lester’s being a little bit worse. But come on, these are the Royals. We can do this.
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