It always seems that the Royals have played the Angels tough, even in recent times when Kansas City has fielded some pretty miserable teams. Yesterday's loss came at the hands of former Mariner Gil Meche; his
$55M/5 year deal with the team was widely derided at the time, but as
David Pinto suggested yesterday, it seems that Royals pitching coach Bob McClure has convinced the starters to throw strikes. In so doing, Meche has dropped his walk rate to a
well-below career average 1.86, and a
career low 1.18 WHIP; he's also just about doubled his groundball/flyball rate (2.08 vs. a career average of 0.96) at a penalty of only about 1 K/9 so far. Of course, before Royals fans get too excited, it should be duly noted that
Meche has a history of second-half meltdowns, and so we'll keep an eye on this situation. The Angels will see the Royals at home at the end of June, so maybe they'll catch a break if they face Meche again.
Jered Weaver pitched a decent game, striking out nine but giving up one long loud fly and three runs total, a quality start. This was a fairly typical Jered Weaver result in the minors, and so we pat him on the back and move on, noting in passing that the bullpen did a less-than-stellar job, though Dustin Moseley surrendered only his third and fourth earned runs this year.
The real problem was the offense. Recently hot Reggie Willits and the estimable Vlad Guerrero aside, none of the team's hitters got on base once. The Angels were retired in order five times, a ridiculous comment on the state of the team's OBP; at .323, it actually trails the Royals by .002, good for 9th in the league. Fire Mickey Hatcher.
Recap • Yahoo Box
Labels: angels, recaps, royals
: 5/04/2007 11:47:00 AM
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.