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
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