Which was five minutes late thanks to the induction of George Toma into the Royals Hall of Fame. On the plus side, it was nice to see the franchise extending the man a little respect. I was disappointed when we missed the ceremony’s originally-scheduled date a few weeks ago, so I’m glad we were there to see it happen. Several players from back in the day showed up for the pre-game ceremony, so that was fun as well.
On the other hand, the ceremony itself was more than a little half-assed. They spent a chunk of money putting up big wall-sized photos of Toma. But then David Glass forgot part of his speech, leading to one of the most epic embarrassed silences I’ve ever seen. Then Toma himself gave a long, rambling speech. Though I wouldn’t begrudge the man his moment, for my taste he could have spent a great deal less time dwelling on the details of caring for football stadiums.
The game itself was a typical Royals-style victory. We took a small lead early on, which was nice because at least it was a lead. But we never pulled so far ahead that we could sit back in our seats and get comfortable.
At least some of the farmhands played like they wanted to stay in the majors. Irving Falu got a little too aggressive on the basepaths in the second, running into an 8-4-3 run-down (though Brayan Pena scored on the play). Falu had a better time fielding, making several good stops. David Lough also made a great diving catch in left.
We also got to see a fair amount of squirrel ball. Weak popouts seemed to be the order of the day. Both sides also did some batter hitting. It started with a harsh plunk to Alcides Escobar’s forearm. Shin-Soo Choo was the next victim. Both of those were likely to have been accidental. But in the eighth Scott Maine struck Lough squarely and deliberately, drawing a warning from the umpire to both benches. I can’t remember the last time I saw that.
Fortunately it came too late to make any difference in the outcome. Cleveland played like the worst team in the league (an “honor” they’re currently swapping back and forth with Minnesota), and we played like a team marginally better than that.
The box score: INDIANS (3) AT ROYALS (6) INDIANS AB R H BI ROYALS AB R H BI Shin-Soo Choo 4 1 1 0 Jarrod Dyson 3 1 1 0 Jason Kipnis 5 0 1 0 Alcides Escobar 3 0 1 0 Asdrubal Cabrera 4 1 2 0 Mike Moustakas 3 1 1 2 Carlos Santana 3 0 1 2 Billy Butler 3 0 1 0 Michael Brantley 3 0 1 1 Jeff Francoeur 4 2 1 0 Travis Hafner 3 0 0 0 Eric Hosmer 3 0 0 1 Matt LaPorta 1 0 1 0 Brayan Pena 4 1 2 2 Casey Kotchman 3 0 2 0 David Lough 3 0 1 0 Russ Canzler 1 0 0 0 Irving Falu 4 1 2 1 Lonnie Chisenhall 4 0 0 0 Ezequiel Carrera 4 1 1 0 TOTALS 35 3 10 3 TOTALS 30 6 10 6 INDIANS 001 000 200 -- 3 ROYALS 021 010 02x -- 6 LOB--INDIANS 9, ROYALS 6. 2B--Asdrubal Cabrera, Brayan Pena. HBP--Shin-Soo Choo, Alcides Escobar, David Lough. SACF--Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas. SACB--Asdrubal Cabrera. SB--Alcides Escobar. INDIANS IP H R ER BB SO HR Justin Masterson 6 7 4 4 2 3 0 Joe Smith 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Cody Allen 0 1-3 2 2 2 0 0 0 Scott Maine 0 2-3 1 0 0 0 0 0 ROYALS Luis Mendoza 6 8 2 2 2 3 0 Tim Collins 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 Francisley Bueno 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 Greg Holland 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 WP--Justin Masterson. SO--Asdrubal Cabrera (2), Shin-Soo Choo, Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis, Russ Canzler, Billy Butler (2), Alcides Escobar, Eric Hosmer. BB--Michael Brantley, Carlos Santana, Billy Butler, Jarrod Dyson. LOCATION: The K CONDITION: Dry WEATHER: Clear, Cool Buck: W (domestic violence shelter worker) Guard: USN Anthem: Meh Umpires H: Cederstrom 1: Barksdale 2: Rippinger 3: Johnson Time: 7:15 Temp: 75
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