Blind Quarterback Plays Baseball: Week 4

Royals Round Up:

To quote the great Johnny Cash, the Royals “have been everywhere” this past week. They’ve travelled to Chicago, New York and now are in Tampa Bay for the next three days. 

3-Game Series Against the White Sox: 

The bullpen continues to be the thorn in the Royals’ side, as they dropped 2 of the 3 game series to divisional rivals, the Chicago White Sox. Their single win came in a high intensity game last Wednesday. As division rivals, it is safe to say that the Royals and the White Sox are not too friendly with one another and on Wednesday, this was proven true. Tensions boiled over when White Sox shortstop, Tim Anderson hit a homer off Royals’ pitcher Brad Keller. 

The rather exuberant way Anderson decided to celebrate the homer, with flipping his bat into the air, yelling and tossing the bat into one of the dug outs – sent Keller over the edge. Anderson’s next time at bat, he was hit by an “errant pitch”. Like most pitchers in his position, Keller swore that it was just a pitch that got away from him. Regardless, Anderson was suspended for one game and Keller was suspended for 5, which - thanks to the starting rotation for pitchers - is the equivalent of a one game suspension for Keller)

4-Game Series Against the Yankees:

The Royals traveled to the Bronx and shocked the Yankees in the first game of the series. The Royals scored 6 runs and held the Yankees to just one single run. Unfortunately, the other games did not go as smoothly. The Royals lost the next 3 games, including a heartbreaker that went into extra innings finishing at the bottom of the 10^th, Yankees – 7, Royals - 6. Before that, the score was Yankees – 6, Royals - 1 for the longest time.

Yankees pitcher James Paxton throwing lights out and striking out 12 Royals. After Paxton was relieved, the Royals scored 6 runs in a very busy eighth inning, scoring runs off Adalberto Mondesi’s 2-run double, Alex Gordon’s 3-run homer and Hunter Dozier’s single run homer. In addition to the shaky bullpen, a common theme against the Yankees was not moving base runners to score. The Royals left a total of six men on base Sunday and Saturday and eight on Friday.

Up Next:

The Royals have a 3 game series in Tampa Bay against the red hot Rays, before finally returning home to face the $430 million-dollar-man, Mike Trout and the Angels.

Hot Batters:

Austin Meadows

The Royals’ bullpen is preparing for Rays’ batter Austin Meadows. Meadows is hitting .351, with 6 homers and 19 RBI’s. 

Mike Trout

The $430 million dollar man Mike Trout will be a worthy batter against the Royals’ bullpen as well. Trout is proving his worth, hitting .333, with 6 homers, 14 RBI’s and even a stolen base.

Around The League:

Lately, “bench-clearing” brawls are arising in the league and have now occurred at least twice in two different games so far this season.

These “brawls” have started with the exuberant and inappropriately lengthy celebrations of batters after they’ve made gorgeous home runs. Once the batter returns to the plate, the pitcher, seeking his own version of on the diamond justice, throws an errant pitch, beaning the batter in his rear end on both occasions, the pitcher claiming afterward that it was just a pitch that got away. The first was Chris Archer of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The second is the Royals’ own Brad Keller.

Some say that, like with touchdown celebrations in football, we should let the players have fun and celebrate their success, but when it is it celebrating and when is it show boating?  The other argument points out that that amount of celebration is disrespectful to the pitcher and the opposing team and any batter should expect what comes to him his next time up to the plate and not question it.

Tom “Old Dog” Wyrsch has his opinion and he sent me this:

“In the case of Tim Anderson of the White Sox I just think he was showboating. He is having a good year but to flip his bat, to me, is showing disrespect to the game and Royals. Anderson should have expected what Keller did. That’s baseball. And Keller’s pitch was thrown at his rear which is the best place to demonstrate your point. Anderson needs to just play the game and not be such a punk the way I see it.”

When asked about the Reds/Pirates dust up a couple weeks before, the Old Dog added this:

“Well Reds’ Dietrich stood and stared at his home run with the catcher saying something to him. When he came up next he had the pitch thrown behind him and that started both benches to empty? Again, a little showboating. How would it look for a pitcher, like Yankees’ Paxton [on Sunday], to flaunt it every time he struck a batter out. He had 12 strikeouts but didn’t try to intimidate the Royals except with his pitches.”

Ask The Old Dog:

“Royals return to the K Friday after a long and not very successful road trip. Tampa Bay is 14-8 with a two and half game lead over Yankees in the Eastern Division. They have a 7-2 record on the road so they will be tough. Angels come into the K being in last place in the West with 9-13 record and five and a half behind Seattle. Look for Rays to try hard to come back from a sweep by the Yankees. Having Mike Trout at the K will interesting to see if he is worthy of his big contract extension and whether Pujols has anything left in his bat. Royals’ bullpen and offense needs to get on track and get a few wins.”