Game 12 vs. Arizona

I love being at the ballpark on a Sunday afternoon – especially one as beautiful as today – but I’m less enthusiastic about the on-field lollygagging that tends to go on. This game was a case in point.

To be sure, it had a moment or two. Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar both made impressive plays in the field. Jeff Francoeur hit a triple, one of the few times “hope you miss it” actually worked. And later he almost threw out Gerardo Parra at the plate.

Overall, however, it was a disappointing game. The Royals slipped back into a pattern common last year: getting on base frequently but somehow never managing to make it all the way around to the plate. What good does a triple do you when it comes with two outs in the inning and the next batter (a slumping Alex Gordon) grounds out?

Speaking of Gordon: he got robbed on an inning-ending called third strike in the eighth. At that point we trailed by just two, but that proved to be more than enough.

Sigh.

The box score:
 

DIAMONDBACKS (2) AT ROYALS (0)

DIAMONDBACKS         AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Gerardo Parra         2  1  0  0  Johnny Giavotella     4  0  0  0  
Ryan Roberts          3  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       4  0  0  0  
Justin Upton          3  0  1  1  Mike Moustakas        4  0  1  0  
Miguel Montero        4  0  1  0  Billy Butler          2  0  0  0  
Chris Young           4  0  0  0  Jeff Francoeur        4  0  4  0  
Jason Kubel           3  0  0  0  Alex Gordon           4  0  0  0  
Paul Goldschmidt      4  1  1  0  Eric Hosmer           3  0  0  0  
Aaron Hill            3  0  1  0  Brayan Pena           4  0  1  0  
John McDonald         4  0  1  1  Jarrod Dyson          4  0  1  0  
TOTALS               30  2  5  2  TOTALS               33  0  7  0

DIAMONDBACKS                  000 010 010 -- 2  
ROYALS                        000 000 000 -- 0  

LOB--DIAMONDBACKS 7, ROYALS 9. ERR--Eric Hosmer. 2B--Paul
Goldschmidt. 3B--Jeff Francoeur. HBP--Billy Butler.
SACF--Justin Upton. SACB--Ryan Roberts. SB--Gerardo Parra,
Justin Upton.

 DIAMONDBACKS                    IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Wade Miley                        7    6    0    0    2    3    0
David Hernandez                   1    1    0    0    0    3    0
J.J. Putz                         1    0    0    0    0    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Nate Adcock                       5    5    1    1    1    3    0
Kelvin Herrera                    2    0    0    0    0    2    0
Greg Holland                      1    0    1    1    1    0    0
Louis Coleman                     1    0    0    0    2    0    0

WP--Greg Holland. SO--Aaron Hill, Ryan Roberts, Justin
Upton, Chris Young, Paul Goldschmidt, Alex Gordon, Alcides
Escobar (2), Jarrod Dyson, Mike Moustakas, Johnny Giavotella
(2). BB--Aaron Hill, Gerardo Parra (2), Jason Kubel, Billy
Butler, Eric Hosmer.

Buck Seat: W (Wayside Waifs volunteer, in honor of Bark at the Park)
Guard: HS JROTC
Anthem: HS band

Umpires:
H: Carapazza
1: Davis
2: Cuzzi
3: Gibson

Time: 1:10
Temp: 72

Game 11 vs. Arizona

Once again interleague play is upon us. While geographical rivalries play out in Texas and Chicago, we settle for the novelty of seeing a team to which we would otherwise pay little attention. Further, the home stand was starting to look like a repeat of the dismal first rather than the victorious second. Still, the Diamondbacks aren’t doing quite as well as the Orioles, so we went into the game with some optimism (not to mention shiny new All Star Garden Gnomes).

Bruce Chen took the mound with an apparent dedication to keeping things interesting. The first two Diamondbacks reached in the first. Then they did it again in the second. Chen got a couple of outs in the third before putting two runners on. Then the first two reached in the fourth. And each time the team pulled it together and got the outs they needed to keep Arizona from scoring.

In the bottom halves, his teammates finally gave Chen some run support. They went in order in the first, but in the second Mike “Mooooose” Moustakas scored on a single by Chris Getz, managing to cross the plate seconds before Brayan Pena fell victim to an 8-5 run-down. The rest of the runs were more conventional, some good station-to-station and a couple of home runs (Billy Butler and Moustakas).

So when our starter began to falter a bit in the seventh (after perfect innings in the fifth and sixth), the lead was big enough that it didn’t cost us the game. And Chen got to leave the field to a standing ovation. And it turned out later that the whole time he’d been fighting a terrible respiratory infection. Wow.

So the Player of the Game wasn’t much of a debate. The Play of the Game took place in the top of the second. Jason “Sounds Like a Dessert” Kubel was on third with one out, Ryan Roberts hit a fly to center that looked certain to score the runner on a sacrifice. But Jarod Dyson made an outstanding throw, and Kubel was so out he had time to make an unsuccessful stab and dodging the tag. That one run wasn’t the difference in the game. But keeping the Diamondbacks from scoring first was a big psychological edge that may well have led to the Royals’ success at the plate.

The box score:

DIAMONDBACKS (3) AT ROYALS (7)

DIAMONDBACKS         AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Willie Bloomquist     5  0  2  1  Jarrod Dyson          3  1  1  1  
Aaron Hill            5  0  1  0  Eric Hosmer           4  0  1  1  
Justin Upton          3  1  1  0  Billy Butler          3  1  1  3  
Miguel Montero        2  0  0  0  Alex Gordon           3  0  0  0  
Chris Young           4  0  1  0  Jeff Francoeur        4  0  0  0  
Jason Kubel           3  0  2  1  Mike Moustakas        4  3  2  1  
Paul Goldschmidt      4  1  3  0  Brayan Pena           4  0  3  0  
Cody Ransom           3  0  0  0  Chris Getz            4  0  1  1  
 Lyle Overbay         1  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       3  2  2  0  
Ryan Roberts          4  1  1  1                                    
TOTALS               34  3 11  3  TOTALS               32  7 11  7

DIAMONDBACKS                  000 000 210 -- 3  
ROYALS                        012 121 00x -- 7  

LOB--DIAMONDBACKS 8, ROYALS 5. 2B--Ryan Roberts, Jason
Kubel, Paul Goldschmidt. HR--Billy Butler, Mike Moustakas.
SACF--Jason Kubel, Billy Butler, Jarrod Dyson. SB--Justin
Upton.

 DIAMONDBACKS                    IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Ian Kennedy                   4 1-3    8    6    6    1    3    2
Mike Zagurski                 1 2-3    2    1    1    1    2    0
Josh Collmenter                   2    1    0    0    0    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Bruce Chen                    6 1-3    8    2    2    2    4    0
Aaron Crow                    0 2-3    2    1    1    0    0    0
Jose Mijares                  0 1-3    1    0    0    1    0    0
Greg Holland                  0 2-3    0    0    0    0    0    0
Jonathan Broxton                  1    0    0    0    0    1    0

WP--Ian Kennedy, Mike Zagurski. BALK--Ian Kennedy.
SO--Justin Upton, Willie Bloomquist (2), Jason Kubel, Cody
Ransom, Jeff Francoeur (2), Billy Butler (2), Alex Gordon,
Eric Hosmer. BB--Miguel Montero (2), Justin Upton, Alex
Gordon, Alcides Escobar.

Buck seat: W- (Joplin donations collector)
Guard: UMKC ROTC

Anthem: Duffy’s cousin

Umpires:
H: Gibson
1: Carapazza
2: Davis
3: Cuzzi

Time: 6:16
Temp: 85

Game 10 vs. Baltimore

School Day at the K. Wading through throngs of moppets brought back memories of sitting in the cheap seats as a child. I was never actually a crossing guard, but Mom often got tickets to Crossing Guard Day from her school because of course the price was right. The experience tended to be less baseball and more ice fights and the like.

Fortunately the school groups were at a distance from our seats today, so we didn’t have much trouble with obnoxious, quasi-supervised brats. Indeed, if not for the usual School Day parking mess and my pre-game trip to the upper deck to shoot pictures, I might not have noticed the kids at all.

Which was a good thing, as the game itself was bad enough. Baltimore is currently enjoying an odd perch atop the AL East. Normally I pay no attention whatsoever to the standings at this point in the season (don’t even mention it until after the All-Star Game at the absolute earliest, and don’t genuinely care about it until September). But the expensive Yankees and only-slightly-less-so Red Sox are currently in fourth and fifth place, which is a little too good not to savor while it lasts (which I’m sure won’t be long). How a team that DHes Wilson Betemit can be leading anything is beyond me, but it seems to be working for them.

Further, the previous night’s contest ran to 15 innings (after Jonathan Broxton gave up a two-run lead in the top of the ninth). So everyone involved could be forgiven for not exactly bringing their A games. Even the umpires weren’t 100% (literally, as they called the game with only three on the field).

The first two innings were fairly quiet, but the Royals put together a big one in the third. Humberto Quintero hit a solid double to dead center, scoring two and advancing to third on the play. Then a single by Johnny Giavotella brought him in. Sadly, that would pretty much do it for our offense for the rest of the game.

The Orioles came partially back in the top of the fourth with a two-run homer by Adam Jones. But then Robert Andino grounded into a double play to end the inning. Alcides Escobar’s throw was off, forcing Billy Butler to complete the play with a tag. Symptomatic of the lack of energy from two exhausted ball clubs.

And of course we seem to feel the perpetual need to explore the precarious nature of the one-run lead. Luke Hochevar had a reasonably good game going into the top of the seventh, but then the first two batters reached (Betemit as the tying run on a double by Chris Davis), and Ned Yost brought in Aaron Crow. He got his first two batters, but then he walked Baltimore’s number nine and one hitters. J.J. Hardy hit a broken-bat single that scored two and cemented the loss for Hochevar.

The last time I saw one of these, Joey Gathright was wearing it.

The box score:

ORIOLES (5) AT ROYALS (3)

ORIOLES              AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Xavier Avery          3  0  0  0  Jarrod Dyson          5  0  0  0  
J.J. Hardy            4  0  1  2  Johnny Giavotella     4  0  1  1  
Nick Markakis         4  1  2  0  Billy Butler          4  0  2  0  
Adam Jones            3  1  1  2  Alex Gordon           4  0  0  0  
Wilson Betemit        4  1  1  0  Jeff Francoeur        4  0  0  0  
Chris Davis           4  1  3  1  Mike Moustakas        4  0  0  0  
Robert Andino         4  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       3  1  2  0  
Ryan Flaherty         4  0  0  0  Irving Falu           3  1  2  0  
Luis Exposito         3  1  0  0  Humberto Quintero     3  1  2  2  
                                   Brayan Pena          1  0  0  0  
TOTALS               33  5  8  5  TOTALS               35  3  9  3

ORIOLES                       000 200 300 -- 5  
ROYALS                        003 000 000 -- 3  

LOB--ORIOLES 4, ROYALS 7. ERR--Robert Andino. 2B--Chris
Davis, Billy Butler. 3B--Humberto Quintero. HR--Adam Jones.
SACB--Irving Falu.

 ORIOLES                         IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Brian Matusz                      6    7    3    3    1    2    0
Luis Ayala                        1    1    0    0    0    0    0
Pedro Strop                       1    0    0    0    0    0    0
Jim Johnson                       1    1    0    0    0    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Luke Hochevar                     6    7    4    4    1    6    1
Aaron Crow                    0 2-3    1    1    1    2    0    0
Jose Mijares                  2 1-3    0    0    0    0    1    0

WP--Luis Ayala. SO--Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Wilson
Betemit, Luis Exposito (2), Ryan Flaherty (2), Alex Gordon,
Jarrod Dyson (2). BB--Adam Jones, Luis Exposito, Xavier
Avery, Alcides Escobar.

Technical note: the Royals brought in Louis Coleman in the bottom of the ninth,

but for whatever reason I couldn’t record the substitution in iScore because
he didn’t show up on the roster.

Buck Seat: W-- (Charity golf tournament? Christian preschool “teacher”?)
Guard: USAF
Anthem: Semi-celebrity whom the kids might have known

Umpires:
H: Carlson
1: Hickox
2,3: ???

Time: 1:10
Temp: 81

Game 9 vs. Boston

At this point let me pause and attempt to make some excuse for how long it’s taken me to get the Boston games covered in Loyals. Part of the delay was caused by the transition between the spring semester and the summer break, which often finds me surprisingly busy trying to wrap up college stuff and start summer projects at the same time. But more than that, both games were just so crazy that it’s almost hard to say anything about them.

Nonetheless, let me try. The bottom of the first got off to a quiet start with a couple of outs, a walk and a single. But then the proverbial wheels came off. Johnny Giavotella – DH’ing fresh off the farm – hit what looked like a routine fly ball to center. But then Marlon Byrd failed to field it cleanly, scoring Butler from second and putting runners at first and third (second base is a corner).

Then Brayan Pena hit a deep fly ball up against the fence in left. From our distant perspective, it looked like Cody Ross made a decent play on it for the third out of the inning. But then third base umpire Chris Guccione (or perhaps it was second base umpire Tim Tschida) signaled “no catch.” Apparently Ross didn’t get it squarely in his glove, and it popped out and hit the wall before he got complete control of it. How an umpire sees something like that I don’t know, but I guess that’s why they get the big money.

So three unearned runs in the bottom of the first inning on two plays that you don’t exactly see everyday.

The Red Sox came back to tie it in the third on much more conventional, station-to-station offense. But the home team regained a one-run lead in the fourth with a pair of doubles. After that things quieted down a bit.

Until the top of the ninth. Iron Man came in to close. Ross led off with a single, and when Darnell McDonald (the Red Sox’s equivalent of our speedy Jarrod Dyson) came in as a pinch runner, the scent of trouble was detectable in the air. Jonathan Broxton walked pinch hitter Nick Punto, and Byrd put down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move McDonald to third.

So when Ryan Sweeney hit a fly to mid-left, our hearts sank. It was going to be a tricky play, and with a speedy runner at third it looked like the game would end up tied. But then Alex Gordon made a diving catch, came up throwing and got the ball in so quickly that McDonald was frozen. Wow. On the next at-bat former Royal Mike Aviles grounded out to short, and that was the game.

Gordon’s amazing catch was the Play of the Game. He also made a couple of other impressive plays – a diving stop in the third robbing Sweeney of extras and a similarly impressive catch on a fly ball by Dustin Pedroia in the fifth – making him Player of the Game.

However, Irving Falu was also worth a mention. This was our first look at this recent call-up, playing third while Mike Moustakis got over some muscle stiffness. He did okay at the plate with a double and a single, though he didn’t make it home in time on a tag-up in the eighth. In the field he made a solid play on a broken-bat grounder, ignoring the splintered wood and fielding the ball cleanly. I’m not sure exactly what role the Royals have in mind for this guy, but he seems to have at least some potential.

The box score:

RED SOX (3) AT ROYALS (4)

RED SOX              AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Mike Aviles           5  0  2  0  Jarrod Dyson          4  0  0  0  
Dustin Pedroia        4  1  1  0  Alex Gordon           3  0  1  0  
David Ortiz           4  0  0  0  Billy Butler          3  1  1  0  
Adrian Gonzalez       4  0  1  3  Jeff Francoeur        4  1  1  0  
Will Middlebrooks     4  0  0  0  Johnny Giavotella     4  1  0  1  
Cody Ross             4  0  1  0  Brayan Pena           4  0  1  2  
J Saltalamacchia      3  0  1  0  Irving Falu           4  1  2  0  
Marlon Byrd           2  1  1  0  Chris Getz            3  0  2  0  
Ryan Sweeney          4  1  1  0  Alcides Escobar       3  0  1  1  
TOTALS               34  3  8  3  TOTALS               32  4  9  4

RED SOX                       003 000 000 -- 3  
ROYALS                        300 100 00x -- 4  

LOB--RED SOX 7, ROYALS 7. ERR--Marlon Byrd. 2B--Adrian
Gonzalez, J Saltalamacchia, Brayan Pena, Alex Gordon,
Alcides Escobar, Irving Falu. HBP--Marlon Byrd, Alex Gordon.
SACB--Marlon Byrd, Chris Getz.

 RED SOX                         IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Jon Lester                        5    6    4    1    1    3    0
Clayton Mortensen                 3    3    0    0    0    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Bruce Chen                    6 2-3    7    3    3    0    5    0
Aaron Crow                    1 1-3    0    0    0    0    1    0
Jonathan Broxton                  1    1    0    0    1    0    0

SO--Ryan Sweeney, Adrian Gonzalez, J Saltalamacchia, David
Ortiz (2), Will Middlebrooks, Billy Butler, Alex Gordon,
Jarrod Dyson, Johnny Giavotella. BB--J Saltalamacchia, Billy
Butler.

Buck Seat: W-
Guard: JROTC (where do these kids get all those ribbons?)
Anthem: don’t jazz it up (nice sparkly shirt, though)

Umpires:
1 - Welke
2 - Tschida
3 - Guccione
H - Nelson

Time: 7:10
Temp: 69

Game 8 vs. Boston

Royals fans have a special appreciation for the tired axiom that “it isn’t whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” If the main pleasure you derive from baseball is watching your team win (Yankees “fans,” I’m looking at you), then the Royals aren’t your team. We’ve learned to savor good fielding and well-played offense more than sloppy victories, at least in part because the sloppy victories almost always go to the visiting team.

Tonight’s game put that theory to the test. By no means was this a well-played game for either team. The greatest case-in-point was the bottom of the second. We were already down by two and settling in for a long evening. Eric Hosmer led off the Royals’ half with a single and Jeff Francoeur walked. But then Mike Moustakis grounded into a fielder’s choice, moving Hosmer to third and once again raising doubts about whether 90 feet worth of scoring position is really that great an advantage over 180 feet.

In  this case, however, it turned out to be. Daniel Bard, on the mound for the Red Sox, balked not once but twice. The first time he clearly thought the umpire was wrong, and for all I know he may have had a point. But the second time he moved to second while he was still planted on the rubber, adding an awkward hop-step that made it painfully obvious that he knew what he’d just done. Perhaps the first balk call got to him and broke his concentration. Whatever the cause, Hosmer scored and Moustakis moved from first to third.

Chris Getz batted him in with a single and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then he came around to score on a single by Humberto Quintero, giving us the lead. The inning might have gone on from there if Quintero hadn’t made a bizarre decision to steal second, getting gunned down by a mile to end the inning.

After that the Royals were quiet at the plate until the seventh. Francoeur and Moustakis singled, and Getz laid down a solid bunt to move the runners. Alcides Escobar also bunted to lesser effect, getting Frenchy tagged out at the plate.

For their part, Boston wasn’t faring much better. The team has been plagued by injuries this year, and it showed. In the fourth Mike Aviles hit a double and then came around to tie the game (all of this with two outs). Then in the fifth the Sox took the lead after Adrian Gonzales doubled and scored.

Despite the small size of the lead, late inning comebacks have been few and far between (well okay, nonexistent) during our time at the K this year. Bard gave us a little hope when he walked the first two batters in the eighth, but then Bobby Valentine replaced his clearly-exhausted starter with reliever Matt Albers. On his third pitch to Billy Butler, Country Breakfast caught it squarely and smacked a no-doubter way over the left field wall. After the game, he said it was his best hit of the season so far. I tend to agree.

Going into the top of the ninth, I remember remarking how nice it would have been to have heard the opening notes of “Welcome to the Jungle.” Oh to have had Joachim Soria right then. But to the tune of “Iron Man,” Jonathan Broxton came in and got the top of the Red Sox order in order on eight pitches.

So the Player of the Game has to be Butler. With one swing of the bat, he turned yet another annoying close-but-no-cigar loss into a no-such-thing-as-an-ugly win. I’m ashamed to admit that – if this game is any indication – I’ll take a sloppy victory over a well-played loss (though our game against Justin Verlander still stands as evidence to the contrary). The Play of the Game was the twin balks. That’s something you don’t see one of everyday, let alone two.

The box score:

RED SOX (4) AT ROYALS (6)

RED SOX              AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Mike Aviles           4  1  1  0  Jarrod Dyson          3  1  0  0  
Dustin Pedroia        4  0  1  2  Alex Gordon           3  1  0  0  
David Ortiz           5  0  1  0  Billy Butler          4  1  2  3  
Cody Ross             3  0  0  0  Eric Hosmer           4  1  1  0  
Adrian Gonzalez       3  1  2  0  Jeff Francoeur        3  0  1  0  
Will Middlebrooks     1  1  1  0  Mike Moustakas        4  1  1  0  
 Nick Punto           2  0  0  0  Chris Getz            1  1  1  1  
Darnell McDonald      2  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       3  0  1  0  
 Ryan Sweeney         2  0  0  1  Humberto Quintero     2  0  1  1  
Marlon Byrd           4  1  2  0   Brayan Pena          1  0  0  0  
Kelly Shoppach        4  0  1  1                                    
TOTALS               34  4  9  4  TOTALS               28  6  8  5

RED SOX                       020 110 000 -- 4  
ROYALS                        030 000 03x -- 6  

LOB--RED SOX 8, ROYALS 3. 2B--Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz,
Mike Aviles, Will Middlebrooks. HR--Billy Butler.
SACB--Chris Getz.

 RED SOX                         IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Daniel Bard                       7    7    5    5    4    1    0
Matt Albers                   0 2-3    1    1    1    0    0    1
Andrew Miller                 0 1-3    0    0    0    0    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Danny Duffy                   4 1-3    7    4    4    5    1    0
Kelvin Herrera                1 2-3    0    0    0    0    2    0
Jose Mijares                      2    2    0    0    0    3    0
Jonathan Broxton                  1    0    0    0    0    0    0

WP--Daniel Bard. BALK--Daniel Bard (2). SO--Ryan Sweeney,
Kelly Shoppach (2), Cody Ross (2), Marlon Byrd, Brayan Pena,
Mike Moustakas. BB--Cody Ross, Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin
Pedroia, Mike Aviles, Nick Punto, Jeff Francoeur, Chris
Getz, Alex Gordon, Jarrod Dyson.

Buck seat: W-
Guard: Navy
Anthem: Fan contest winner - okay

Umpires:
1 - Nelson
2 - Welke
3 - Tschida
H - Guccione

Time: 7:10
Temp: 73

Game 7 vs. The Evil Empire

We had tickets for Thursday, the first home game after a road trip that saw the team’s fortunes improve a bit. One of Amy’s coworkers expressed interest in the tickets, and giving them away was a 50-50 proposition. If the Royals continued their home fortunes (or lack of same), we’d get stuck sitting through two painful losses in the company of Yankee fans. On the other hand, if they won on Thursday, that might be a clear indication from the Baseball Gods that we’d broken faith, and tonight would be punishment swift and sure.

The Royals won on Thursday. Nor did our luck improve when it turned out Amy couldn’t make the game tonight because this is painting weekend for her. We needed to get out to the K a little earlier than usual because of the 6 o’clock start and the “Pine Tar Bat” give-away. As it turned out, we didn’t have to arrive as early as we did. The G lot was packed, but J was fairly empty.

The Player of the Game was Felipe Paulino. He threw six scoreless innings against the most expensive lineup in baseball. He was perfect through three and would have kept it going another inning if not for A Rod walking in the fourth. The Yankees managed to load the bases in the fifth, but they couldn’t score. Paulino ended up going six inning of shut-out ball, throwing 95 pitches.

In the meantime, the Royals put together some offense. Jarod Dyson led off the first by making base on a bad bobble by Derek Jeter. Both Dyson and Alex Gordon scored on a double by Billy Butler. The Royals threatened but didn’t capitalize in the third, but then in the fifth and sixth they cashed in on some great station-to-station work that had Joe Girardi swapping pitchers like baseball cards.

The Play of the Game came in the sixth, when Paulino seemed to be struggling. Curtis Granderson hit a lead-off double, and when A Rod made solid contact, Ned Yost started up the stairs to yank him. But then Jeff Francoeur made the catch in deep right. “Don’t run on him,” I mumbled, but Granderson wasn’t listening. For his part, Mike Moustakis just stood there cool as a cucumber at third. Nope, nothing wrong here, Mr. Granderson. The sac fly is working just fine.

The unrelayed throw nailed him by a mile. Then Frenchy made a spectacular diving catch to end the inning.

Overall the game was pure joy to watch. Gordon went four for five (robbed in his last at-bat by a bad strike call). On top of his costly error, Jeter went zero for four. We played like an actual team for the first time this season, at least in games we were there for. And what better time to start?

A brief note about the stands: I was astonished at how few Yankees fans I saw. There were pockets here and there, and a few got loud and surly as their beer counts mounted and their team continued to tank. But the lower deck was nowhere near the sea of black and pinstripes I’d been expecting. As I think back on it, the last time I was actually present for a Yankees game was the “Share the Wealth” protest years and years ago, so long past in fact that we were in the upper deck at the time.

The box score:
 

YANKEES (1) AT ROYALS (5)

YANKEES              AB  R  H BI  ROYALS               AB  R  H BI
Derek Jeter           4  0  0  0  Jarrod Dyson          4  1  0  1  
Curtis Granderson     4  0  2  0  Alex Gordon           5  2  4  1  
Alex Rodriguez        3  0  0  0  Billy Butler          4  0  2  3  
Robinson Cano         4  0  1  0  Eric Hosmer           3  0  0  0  
Mark Teixeira         4  0  0  0  Jeff Francoeur        3  0  1  0  
Raul Ibanez           4  0  1  0  Mike Moustakas        3  0  0  0  
Russell Martin        4  1  3  1  Humberto Quintero     4  0  0  0  
Dewayne Wise          3  0  0  0  Chris Getz            2  1  0  0  
 Andruw Jones         1  0  0  0  Alcides Escobar       4  1  1  0  
Eduardo Nunez         3  0  1  0                                    
TOTALS               34  1  8  1  TOTALS               32  5  8  5

YANKEES                       000 000 100 -- 1  
ROYALS                        200 012 00x -- 5  

LOB--YANKEES 8, ROYALS 10. ERR--Derek Jeter. 2B--Russell
Martin, Curtis Granderson (2), Eduardo Nunez, Billy Butler
(2), Alex Gordon. HR--Russell Martin. SACF--Jarrod Dyson.
SB--Chris Getz.

 YANKEES                         IP    H    R   ER   BB   SO   HR
Hiroki Kuroda                 4 1-3    6    3    2    3    2    0
Clay Rapada                   0 1-3    0    0    0    0    0    0
Cody Eppley                   0 1-3    1    2    2    1    0    0
Boone Logan                       1    1    0    0    1    0    0
Freddy Garcia                     2    0    0    0    1    1    0
 ROYALS                     
Felipe Paulino                    6    4    0    0    2    6    0
Jose Mijares                  0 2-3    2    1    1    0    1    1
Kelvin Herrera                1 1-3    1    0    0    0    1    0
Tim Collins                       1    1    0    0    0    1    0

WP--Hiroki Kuroda. SO--Russell Martin, Andruw Jones, Curtis
Granderson (2), Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira (2), Dewayne
Wise, Eduardo Nunez, Humberto Quintero, Alex Gordon, Jarrod
Dyson. BB--Alex Rodriguez, Eduardo Nunez, Jeff Francoeur,
Billy Butler, Chris Getz (2), Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas.

Buck seat: Alvin Brooks, who at least isn’t a white guy from Lenexa

Guard: JROTC

Anthem: Riverdance-lookin’ English tenor Alfie Boe

Umpires:
H - Gibson
1 - Gonzales
2 - ?
3 - Cuzzi

Time - 6:10
Temp - 87