Monday, June 12, 2006 |
Ya Gotta Beat 'Em: Angels 4, Royals 3
In fact, it's hard to imagine a worse team than this year's Kansas City squad. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders pretty much hold the single-season record for worst won-loss record in major league history. As Sports Illustrated's John Donovan noted three years ago when the 2003 Tigers were looking to set the bar for the worst post-1900 team record, the Spiders played in that funny deadball era, and so we ignore them. Still, even in failure, the Tigers failed; the 1962 Mets, 40-120, still beat them by one loss (the Tigers finished 43-119). On their current pace, the Royals will finish with a 40-122 record, eclipsing the Amazin's, and so the team has something to look forward to, presuming their, uh, slow start is an accurate indicator of their ability.
Despite my misgivings about Darin Erstad's reappearance on the lineup (he replaced the little-used Tommy Murphy, who scampers down to AAA), he actually had a productive night, walking twice and even making it to third on an Orlando Cabrera double. Cabrera, who himself continued his hot streak, cashed in a run and got three hits, one of them a double. Even though Kendry Morales added only a single to the proceedings, he also had a pair of long loud warning track outs that, had this been a day game, would have been home runs. Mike Napoli did himself no favors in the H column, but he walked and scored a run, and that walk sure beats the meaningless "productive out" he had in the second, now doesn't it?
But of course I reserve my greatest offensive praise for Dallas McPherson, whose 3-3 night should have included a chance to go against Andy Sisco, the now-struggling left-hander the Royals stole from the Cubs via the Rule 5 draft a couple years ago. I've seen D-Mac turn too many corners to believe this is necessarily real, but like spring flowers, we take our joys where we can, no matter how fleeting.
And then Ervin Santana, he of the magic dreds. He had a no-hitter going through four, broken up by Matt Stairs' leadoff single, but he held up enough to get the job done, as did Scot Shields, and even Francisco Rodriguez. Nobody was rousing in this game, but given the last series, I'll settle for a competently-executed win.
Lastly, a word of caution for Adam Kennedy: I know he's got a great glove — from what I hear, better than Howie Kendrick. But, well, .400+ at any level is awfully tempting, as is Kennedy's four 0-fer games this month. Bill Stoneman must be sweating nights just thinking about it.
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