Friday night is also a good time for a ballgame. Nobody has to go to work the next day, so we can all sit back and enjoy ourselves. Even if it happens to be Girls’ Night Out and the stadium happens to be full of people enjoying the outlandish prices of the adult beverages.
The game ... whew. We’ve been doing great on the road, but home wins have been rare enough this season that we should cherish each and every one of them. Still, we won this one solely by virtue of being slightly less terrible than the visiting team.
Felipe Paulino pitched well in May. He set some kind of weird record, like being the only Royals pitcher to throw a minimum of six scoreless innings in two consecutive games against the Yankees. Sadly, he’s been in the “no run support” pit along with the rest of the pitching staff, so his record isn’t especially great. Bartolo Colon took the mound for Oakland. It seems like an eternity since his salad days (actually more likely cheeseburger days) with Cleveland, but apparently he’s still in the majors.
The game got off to a rocky start when a grounder zipped right past Eric Hosmer. This marks the first occasion in which I disagreed with the official scorer and recorded it as an error rather than a hit. Sorry, but the ball was hit right at him. A little more concentration on his part and that’s an easy out in his glove rather than a runner on first.
Paulino didn’t let it get to him. Indeed, he got the next eight batters in a row.
In our half of the first, Colon walked Alex Gordon and then gave up a double to Yuiesky Betancourt (poor Irving Falu optioned back to Omaha). A couple more hits and we had an early 2-0 lead, not exactly a Luke-Hochevar-sized meltdown but not what one would expect from a pitcher of Colon’s experience.
He struggled a little in the second and a lot in the third. After loading the bases to start the inning, only the dumbest of luck (a fielder’s choice force at the plate and an inning-ending double play) got the A’s out unscathed.
For their part, Oakland just squandered opportunities with terrible base running. Jemile Weeks singled with two outs in the third, and when Seth Smith walked things started to look like trouble. But then Weeks took off for third before Paulino even started his delivery, and though the pitcher didn’t immediately pick up the screams from our dugout he still got the runner by a mile. Then an inning later Yoenis Cespedis got picked off at first.
I’m not sure what exactly the deal is with Oakland. They’ve got a couple of mediocre ex-Royals (Coco Crisp and Kila Ka’aihue), Brandon Inge (who used to be outstanding for the Tigers at third), some names that are vaguely familiar and some guys I’ve never heard of. Whatever their strategy with all that might be, it wasn’t working for them tonight.
In closing, I’d like to note that I wish they’d find another in-from-the-bullpen song for Jonathan Broxton. If “Iron Man” really gets him fired up, then I guess we’re stuck with it. Certainly Black Sabbath is no worse than Guns n’ Roses. It’s just that back in the day the neighborhood kids used to refer to Ronald McKay as “Chicken Man.” And sometimes Randy Burton would sing the Chicken Man song – “I am Chicken Man, Eatin’ chicken fast as I can” to the obvious tune. Ah, sweet memories of childhood that I don’t want associated with the guy being marketed as our ace closer.
The box score: ATHLETICS (0) AT ROYALS (2) ATHLETICS AB R H BI ROYALS AB R H BI Jemile Weeks 4 0 1 0 Alex Gordon 3 1 1 0 Seth Smith 3 0 0 0 Yuniesky Betancourt 4 1 1 1 Josh Reddick 4 0 1 0 Billy Butler 4 0 1 0 Yoenis Cespedes 4 0 0 0 Mike Moustakas 2 0 1 1 Kila Ka'aihue 3 0 0 0 Jeff Francoeur 4 0 1 0 Brandon Inge 2 0 0 0 Eric Hosmer 4 0 1 0 Coco Crisp 3 0 0 0 Alcides Escobar 3 0 1 0 Kurt Suzuki 2 0 0 0 Jarrod Dyson 3 0 0 0 Cliff Pennington 3 0 0 0 Humberto Quintero 3 0 1 0 TOTALS 28 0 2 0 TOTALS 30 2 8 2 ATHLETICS 000 000 000 -- 0 ROYALS 200 000 00x -- 2 LOB--ATHLETICS 5, ROYALS 7. ERR--Eric Hosmer. 2B--Yuniesky Betancourt, Alex Gordon. ATHLETICS IP H R ER BB SO HR Bartolo Colon 7 8 2 2 2 3 0 Andrew Carignan 0 2-3 0 0 0 1 1 0 Jerry Blevins 0 1-3 0 0 0 0 0 0 ROYALS Felipe Paulino 6 2 0 0 3 5 0 Kelvin Herrera 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 Greg Holland 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Jonathan Broxton 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 SO--Seth Smith, Brandon Inge, Cliff Pennington (2), Josh Reddick (2), Jemile Weeks, Yoenis Cespedes (2), Jeff Francoeur, Yuniesky Betancourt, Billy Butler, Alex Gordon. BB--Kurt Suzuki, Seth Smith, Brandon Inge, Kila Ka'aihue, Alex Gordon, Mike Moustakas (2). Buck Seat: B (So your mom had cancer? Really?) Guard: Navy Anthem: Eddie Money (still alive, apparently) Umpires:
H - Everitt 1 - Schreiber 2 - Welke 3 - Diaz Time: 7:10 Temp: 63 (plus a chilly wind at our backs)
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