The streak stops at four, although we’re still tied for first place, thanks to the entire AL West losing this day.
Kenny Rogers pitched a really great game. Except to Ken Harvey. Especially in the fifth inning. In something I can’t remember the last time I saw, he hit a ball that was ruled a home run initially. Harvey circled the bases, and then the umpires got together and disallowed the home run. After arguing by both managers, Kenny Rogers served up a fat pitch, and Ken Harvey jacked that one into a bullpen – obviously fair. That event overshadowed pretty much everything else in the game, unfortunately.
We probably could have overcome it had we been able to get anyone in. We had 13 hits and one walk, for a total of 14 baserunners, but only three of them crossed home plate. Kevin Mench continued a torrid pace, going 3 for 4 today. Let’s hope he keeps this up.
It also irked me that KC threw Jimmy Gobble against us. Not that I have anything against him – he seems nice enough, but he’s the pitcher we would have gotten from KC last year if Juan Gonzalez had let us trade him there. Dammit. And of course, Juan was “sick” this series.
Also, Doug Brocail pitched today for us. Doug’s been out of baseball for a couple of years with injury. His return is a nice story and all, but why are we wasting time with 37 year old reclamation projects now? Especially after the team has said they are building for the future with kids? I don’t understand this move.
Brett Carre:The win streak ends at 4 as we lost 5-3 in KC. This game was extremely frustrating to watch. We left a total of 9 men on base and had a rough time hitting with men in scoring position. Herb Perry got things off to a good start with a RBI triple for a 1-0 lead, but that was the only lead we had tonight.
In a crazy sequence of events, Ken Harvey hit balls over the fence on back to back pitches. Harvey hit a ball over the fence that was ruled fair, but soon after was called foul after the umpires got together and called it foul. It did not matter as Harvey belted the very next pitch over the left field wall for a 3 run jack and that gave the Royals the lead for good at 4-1.
Kenny Rodgers pitched just ok. Not great but not terrible. That one pitch to Harvey was the one that proved to be the killer. KC’s Jimmy Gobble gave up a bunch of hits, but he battled and held us to only 2 runs. We got the tying man up to the plate in the 9th, but Herb Perry couldn’t come through.
Our record stands at 12-9. The best news tonight is that every team in the AL West lost. So, we are still in a 1st place tie with the Angles. Hope we can bounce back and put one in the Win column tomorrow.
Line Score AL FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - TEXAS 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 13 0 KANSAS CITY 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 x 5 9 1 (FINAL) BATTERIES: TEX - KENNY ROGERS, DOUG BROCAIL (7TH), ERASMO RAMIREZ (8TH) AND GERALD LAIRD KAN - JIMMY GOBBLE, JASON GRIMSLEY (6TH), SHAWN CAMP (7TH), MIKE MACDOUGAL (9TH) AND BENITO SANTIAGO WP - JIMMY GOBBLE (1-0) LP - KENNY ROGERS (3-1) SAVE - MIKE MACDOUGAL (1) HOME RUNS: TEX - NONE KAN - KEN HARVEY (2) OFF KENNY ROGERS IN THE 5TH, 2 ON TIME: 2:53 ATT: 15,530 PROBABLES: TEX - CHAN HO PARK (1-3, 5.19) KAN - DENNYS REYES (0-0, 1.93) Box Score TEXAS (3) VS KANSAS CITY (5) - FINAL TEXAS ab r h rbi bb so lob avg M Young ss 4 2 1 0 1 0 3 .367 H Blalock 3b 5 0 1 0 0 1 5 .333 A Soriano 2b 5 0 2 1 0 1 1 .345 H Perry 1b 5 0 2 1 0 0 3 .286 B Jordan dh 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .000 E Young lf 4 1 2 0 0 1 0 .378 K Mench rf 4 0 3 1 0 0 0 .313 L Nix cf 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .350 G Laird c 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 .346 a-B Fullmer ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .242 Totals 39 3 13 3 1 4 19 a-grounded to second for G Laird in the 9th. BATTING: 2B - H Blalock (8, J Gobble); K Mench (8, J Gobble); A Soriano 2 (5, J Gobble, M MacDougal); E Young (3, J Gobble). 3B - H Perry (1, J Gobble). RBI - H Perry (5), K Mench (12), A Soriano (12). 2-out RBI - H Perry, A Soriano. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - H Blalock 2, H Perry 2, B Jordan 2, G Laird 1. GIDP - M Young, B Jordan. Team LOB - 10. BASERUNNING: SB - E Young (2, 3rd base off J Gobble/B Santiago). FIELDING: Outfield assists - K Mench (D DeJesus at 1st base). DP: 2 (K Mench-H Perry, M Young-A Soriano-H Perry). KANSAS CITY ab r h rbi bb so lob avg T Graffanino 2b 4 1 3 1 0 0 0 .338 C Beltran cf 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 .296 M Sweeney dh 3 1 1 0 1 1 1 .317 K Harvey 1b 4 2 3 3 0 0 1 .421 J Randa 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 .309 B Santiago c 3 0 1 1 1 0 0 .254 M Lopez lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 .095 A Guiel lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .214 D DeJesus rf 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 .083 A Blanco ss 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 .259 Totals 30 5 9 5 3 2 11 BATTING: 2B - T Graffanino (2, K Rogers). HR - K Harvey (2, 5th inning off K Rogers 2 on, 2 Out). S - A Blanco. RBI - T Graffanino (8), K Harvey 3 (8), B Santiago (8). 2-out RBI - K Harvey 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out - M Sweeney 1. GIDP - M Lopez. Team LOB - 6. FIELDING: E - A Blanco (3, throw). DP: 2 (J Randa-T Graffanino-K Harvey, A Blanco-T Graffanino-K Harvey). ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS - 100 001 001 -- 3 KANSAS CITY - 000 040 01x -- 5 ---------------------------------------------------- TEXAS ip h r er bb so hr era K Rogers (L, 3-1) 6 2/3 7 4 4 3 1 1 4.26 D Brocail 2/3 2 1 1 0 1 0 13.50 E Ramirez 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.68 KANSAS CITY ip h r er bb so hr era J Gobble (W, 1-0) 5 1/3 10 2 2 0 1 0 2.82 J Grimsley (H, 2) 2/3 1 0 0 1 0 0 4.00 S Camp (H, 1) 2 1 0 0 0 2 0 3.68 M MacDougal (S, 1) 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0.00 HBP - D DeJesus (by K Rogers). Pitches-strikes: K Rogers 96-58; D Brocail 17-11; E Ramirez 8-4; J Gobble 88-58; J Grimsley 10-6; S Camp 19-16; M MacDougal 20-12. Ground balls-fly balls: K Rogers 8-10; D Brocail 1-0; E Ramirez 1-1; J Gobble 7-8; J Grimsley 2-0; S Camp 4-0; M MacDougal 2-0. Batters faced: K Rogers 29; D Brocail 4; E Ramirez 2; J Gobble 25; J Grimsley 4; S Camp 6; M MacDougal 5. UMPIRES: HP--Jim Reynolds. 1B--Gary Cederstrom. 2B--Andy Fletcher. 3B--Tim Welke. T--2:53. Att--15,530. Weather: 76 degrees, partly cloudy. Wind: 25 mph, right to left.