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
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