Game 160: What the heck?!
posted in KC Royals, Random, The Stretch Run |I’m not mad or worried or mad, despite this strange occurance: Detroit dropped a 9-7, 11-inning decision to the Royals Friday night.
Seriously. What. the. Heck? Tigers lead by 5 early. Chicago leads the Twins. I’m picturing a 1 magic number. And sure, KC is making a little comeback. No one ever said the Royals roll over and play dead when they face Detroit. It just looks like when you see the final score. And Todd Jones blows a save. Ouch! But it’s his second of the month. Fair enough. I’m not gonna rip on Jonesey, he does a nice job closing for the most part. He doesn’t put the fear of God into other teams. He just gets them out of the inning and hands them a loss. So, yeah, he blows the save, but Detroit LOADS THE BASES (great cats! I sound like Samara with the caps!) with one out and Pudge is up to bat. Game over. Nope. Inning over. Short pop out and for some reason, the runner (Brent Clevlen) tags up and runs home and isn’t even close. That ball was by no measure hit far enough to force the center fielder (Joey Gathright) to be perfect.
Jim Leyland probably didn’t want to waste his bullpen. That’s my only reason for leaving Jamie Walker in a second inning. Better to blow the game — and who’s saying Walker is going to in the first place? We know he pitches nice — than to blow the entire weekend and post season. But Walker got lit up for three home runs and 4-run 11th inning by the Royals. Detroit loaded the bases with one out, scored two runs, and had two on with one out for Pudge. Redemption? Nope. Just another double play. Sigh. Some days, Pudge has got it. Some days, he doesn’t.
I’m not mad or upset, nor do I really care all that much. Detroit let one get away. You can’t be happy with that. I can guarantee they’re probably mad at themselves and will do something about it Saturday. The Twins lost. The magic number is 2.
But, this is baseball. The magic number can be deleted in a single day now. The Athletics, who owned Seattle all season, blew a big lead and fell to the Mariners in a god awful game Monday. Their magic number was two. They were disgusted. So were the fans, dreading the worst. They were doused in champagne less than 24 hours later. That’s how it works now. We’re playing KC for two more days with a magic number of 2. Minnesota is playing Chicago.
So by this time tonight, White Sox and Tigers willing, we could be fans of the Central Division champions. And that’s why I’m not that upset.
Sphere It
Some games just require CAPS OF RAGE, y’know?