* Kansas City Royals @ Philadelphia Phillies Game Thread (4/6) *
 

<table border=3 cellpadding = 4>
<tr><td>Final</td> <td> 1 </td> <td> 2 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 4 </td><td> 5 </td><td> 6 </td><td> 7 </td><td> 8 </td><td> 9 </td><td> R </td><td> H </td><td> E </td></tr>
<tr> <td> KC (2-3) </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 2 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 1 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 6 </td><td> 0 </td></tr>
<tr> <td> PHI (2-3) </td> <td> 0 </td> <td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 1 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 0 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 4 </td><td> 3 </td><td> 2 </td></tr>
</table>

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/ima...s/80x80/kc.png

Luis Mendoza 6IP 1R 1ER 3BB 7K
Hold, (2) Aaron Crow 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Hold, (2) Kelvin Herrera 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 2K
Blown Save, (1); Loss, (0-1) Greg Holland ⅔IP 3R 3ER 3BB 2K

VS.

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/ima.../80x80/phi.png

John Lannan 7IP 3R 3ER 0BB 5K
Mike Adams 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K
Win, (1-0) Antonio Bastardo 1IP 0R 0ER 1BB 0K

Home Runs

none

AL Central

Final: SEA 3, CWS 4
Final: NYY 4, DET 8
Final: MIN 6, BAL 5
Final: CLE 0, TB 6

Starting Lineups

KC

1. Alex Gordon, LF
2. Alcides Escobar, SS
3. Billy Butler, 1B
3. Jarrod Dyson, pr
3. Kelvin Herrera, P
3. Greg Holland, P
4. Salvador Perez, C
5. Lorenzo Cain, CF
6. Jeff Francoeur, RF
7. Miguel Tejada, 3B
7. Aaron Crow, P
7. Eric Hosmer, 1B
8. Elliot Johnson, 2B/3B
9. Luis Mendoza, P
9. Chris Getz, ph/2B

PHI

1. Ben Revere, CF
2. Jimmy Rollins, SS
3. Chase Utley, 2B
4. Ryan Howard, 1B
4. Ezequiel Carrera, pr
5. Michael Young, 3B
6. Domonic Brown, LF
7. John Mayberry, RF
8. Humberto Quintero, C
8. Kevin Frandsen, ph
9. John Lannan, P
9. Mike Adams, P
9. Laynce Nix, ph
9. Antonio Bastardo, P

I don't normally do asterisks, but they seem to be working, so I threw a couple in there.

14 runs today?

This will be the last time we see .500 this year, book it.

So the whole superstitious GT starting thing is out the window, apparently.:)

Hosmer's hot so Leadhead Ned's going to cool him down

Totally missed that.

WTF.

Hosmer in RF, please.

Sitting Hos after a 4-hit game? :spock:

We've been superstitious about GT starting privs. since I can remember, and none of our teams have won jack squat. So I like it. Maybe the Chiefs side of us can learn from it.

I guess it's better to have Hos sit out feeling good about himself than the other way around. Lefty starting, so I get it.

Lannan's a soft-tosser. Let's go boys.

Sitting Hos? Really? Hopefully that's wrong since it was said yesterday that Hos was going to in RF so Billy could play first.

Heading to Philly for the weekend games. If things go badly, you can blame me. Go Royals!

Hosmer won't play RF today. Maybe later in the year, who knows. He looked bad in RF last year, and they apparently still don't think he's got the position figured out yet.

If you can only play Butler or Hosmer, then it makes sense to play Hos yesterday and Butler against the two leftys.

Wooo Hoooo tied for first place in the division

I believe the next two Philly starters are lefties. Hos will be seeing the pine until they get into the Philly bullpen for righties

I would imagine Hamels won't be easy to get to...so hopefully we can lock up the series and a .500 record on this opening road trip. You'd have to call that a successful start, honestly.

And who knows? Maybe Shields will beat Hamels tomorrow. It's entirely possible.

Good point. I didn't think about that.

I was hoping we would be .500 when they got back to The K. A win today = successful road trip to open the season.

In for the win

6:05 central time correct?

Yep, same time as the WSU final four game.

Starting right in the middle of the final 4 games tonight.....damn.

AL has mojo and can forever do whatever he wants if he starts the gamethread.











pending we win today

Not to totally divert to a tangent, but National League ball is lame.

Airing on MLB Network for those not in the broadcast area.

Prediction: Mendoza goes 6, strikes out 9 and we win 4-2

Bold. I hope you're right, but I would like to see us knock around their 5th starter a bit. Lannan isn't anything special.

I find this post 'a little' idiotic.

yes. Yes it is.

A few years ago, I was on that "get rid of the DH" bandwagon, bemoaning the lack of "strategy" etc.

I've changed my mind, I am now a fan of American League baseball, rather than just baseball. If the Royals switched leagues, my interest would decrease.

At the college level and below, the pitcher should hit, because even though he's not as good, he can still put in a credible effort at the plate. At the MLB level, the pitcher is about as effective as some handcuffed guy in a gimp suit. Sure, we have a couple "hitting pitchers" in the NL, but mostly you are hoping for a successful bunt, or if he has to swing, then a miracle.

It is not fun to watch an inning get shut down because with 2 outs they walk the bases loaded in the 2nd inning to get to the pitcher and shut down the threat with a K. I'm also not excited about a double-switch. The "strategy" there is to move that gimp-spot elsewhere in your batting order so you have 8 good hitters in front of him. The bench should be used for defense to hold the lead, speed if a slow tying runner is on, pinch-hitting an all-glove starter late when behind, or to give a guy a day off. You want to play every day, beat the guy in front of you.

If I were emperor of baseball, I'd put the DH in the NL, and tell the NL fans to stuff it when they complain. After 10+ years they'll come around.

***** the Phillies!! Let's go for 3 wins in a row.

DH should take over the NL, hopefully someday.

Probably the most compelling argument anyone has ever made to me to go against my upbringing. Nicely done.

It will happen. DH in both leagues means more big contracts. The player's union should be in favor of it.

Probably can't be done without alienating the purest fan base though.

Ugly scene in Toronto. John Lackey was making his first start of the year for the Red Sox after missing last year due to Tommy John. He just chunked a wild pitch into the dirt and immediately keeled over in pain. Had to come out of the game. Did not look good.

He was pitching okay too... 4 IP, 2 runs allowed, 8 K.

I want to go on record. I think Mendoza has decent enough stuff to be an effective #5 in this rotation. Nothing spectacular but decent enough to keep us in games and eat up some innings. More than we can say for Hochevar. I hope my feeling is right.

Have to admit Ned played a solid NL game yesterday. I was fascinated by the substitutions.

Brilliantly stated! The DH is not going anywhere. Eventually, NL fans will have to bite the bullet on this.

Stubbornly insisting that "Real" baseball is baseball sans DH is the same as stubbornly insisting that "Real" basketball is basketball sans the 3-point line, the shot clock, and the legal ability to dunk the ball, or football sans the forward pass.

Way to go out on a limb there.

n00b..

Hoch proved that he can handle pitching in a tough environment yesterday. /GMDM

Hey, at least we know that 9 run leads are safe with Hoch.

In all reality, this bullpen is fricking nails. We'll have the occasional flame-out, but I haven't felt as good about our pitching situation since 1985.

I smell three in a row.

Or just to use baseball, interleague and instant replay have made their way in. Baseball is the slowest of the four major sports to adopt rule changes but this will happen.

However the All-Star Game WS home field advantage needs to go away. That is garbage. MLB All-Star game is already the best of all sports, they should just leave it be.

It's Yost baby!!!

I wish it wasn't so hard around here to fit in.

:sulk:

Francouer is 13-25 with 1 hr and 6 rbis against Lannan.

I'm in the minority on this. I'm completely fine with using the AS Game to determine home field advantage. Having it be random and just rotate each year IS NOT better.

Home field advantage is something that should be given to the better team. I don't think using win-loss records or seed is any better because they have wildly different schedules. A contest between the leagues where each league puts up their best players is not a bad way to tell whether that league's champion should get home field advantage.

It does nothing to ruin the all-star game, and probably makes it better since it means something. I can't really think of a better way to determine home field advantage.

+1 to what alnorth said.

While perusing a Phillies board I notice a common theme of no confidence in Lanaan. Hopefully we can crush him early and pad another big lead against that soft tossing bullpen.

Dale Murphy responded to my tweet.

You just have to talk about poop, and banging supermodels bro.

Speaking of, brb. Not saying it's going to happen in that order, either.

Now if you did both simultaneously I would put you on the highest pedestal in Chiefsplanet. That'd be pretty cool.

So pooping on a super model = God Mode on ChiefsPlanet.

Somebody get TinyEvel in here with Kirstie Tynes' number. I have a mission.

Or shatting while banging a supermodel.

Either or man, either or.

I don't like the DH. They need to make the games move along faster.

Start watching after the second inning.

Problem solved.

cute

DH improves the quality of the game. I don't know why anyone would want a quicker game if they enjoy watching it, but to each their own.

Luckily, the game is partitioned into innings, with a specific start time. Plan accordingly.

Lineup is out
Gordan 7
Escobar 6
Butler 3
Perez 2
Cain 8
Francoeur 9
Tejada 5
Johnson 4
Mendoza 1

LMAO

Yeah, I get that there are a couple of tough left handers going in a National League game, but good lord does Yost like to jerk the lineup around.

That lineup makes me cringe. but i get it

Ned wants to make sure everybody gets a participation ribbon from the Philly trip....

He can't protect Moose and Hos forever against left handers. Let them play, especially considering how they were both knocking the ball around yesterday.

Qft.

Joe Maden had 78 different lineups in 2012

Something tells me Moose or Hos will come through with a big pinch hit tonight. Hope I'm right. Royals win 6-4

Well, if Yost keeps this up, he'll shatter that number this year.

Plus -

Hope ya guys kick their ass again!

Lannan's stats were basically the same last year vs lefties and righties. Lefties had a slightly better average and OBP while righties had a better K/BB ratio and a little better slugging percentage.

You're right. Even if you go beyond last year, for his career over thousands of AB, he hasn't really had a platoon split.

Let's crack these dumb bells

I'm thinking we win 6-2.

Moose and Hos are supposed to be studs, not platoon guys.

If they can't handle it then we should of traded one of them for pitching instead.


kick Yost in the taint with this stupid ass lineup right after we just had a breakout offensive game.

I am just excited to see if Tejada still has it.

:facepalm:

Its not a platoon. Moose is getting a day off. Players get those sometimes. With Hosmer, its either him or Butler, and Butler is better.

Getz was on fire too yesterday. Ned sits hot hitters

1st inning
 

Top 1st

Gordon strikes out (swinging)
Escobar grounds out to third
Butler grounds out to second

0 runs, 0 hits

Bottom 1st

Revere grounds out to shortstop
Rollins strikes out (swinging)
Utley flies out to left

0 runs, 0 hits

This Lannan looks to be a pretty soft thrower.

Do you guys like the interleague play this early?

Yeah, there's going to be a minimum of 1 interleague series now that the leagues both have 15 teams.