Royals and the Bronx Bombers

The Royals, for the second time in a week, got hot with the bats and scored 10 runs in the 5th inning to beat the Yankees 17-8 last night. Of course, the Yankees provided some help. In that 5th inning there were:

• 6 singles, 2 of them bunts that the Yankees might have made plays on
• 1 homerun (John Buck)
• 5 walks (one intentional)
• 2 wild pitches
• a balk

Not exactly a hitting show but one the Royals will take this season. Angel Berroa went 5 for 5 raising his average to .272 and Joe Randa went 2 for 5 inching him closer to .300 at .294. I'm glad I wasn't scoring the game last night. Chris George pitched the 8th and 9th and promptly gave up 5 runs. His line now reads 35.2 IP, 54 H, 23 BB, 12 SO, and an 8.07 ERA. Yikes. At least he hasn't given up a homerun this year.

Left hander Brad Halsey pitched for the Yankees who has struggled to say the least (over a 7 ERA in limited innings) although Tanyon Sturtze was charged with 7 earned runs in the inning.

Zack Greinke goes for the Royals tonight against Mike Mussina in his first career appearance against the Yankees. I'll be scoring the game and it'll be interesting to watch how Zack approaches their lineup. Greinke's been an extreme fly-ball pitcher this season at .75 (231st in the league, Jimmy Gobble is 234th, two of the bottom five starters in the AL with Darrell May not far behind) and has given up 25 homeruns in 120.3 innings, one less than every 5 innings.

And this note from SABR-L: Texas leads all teams this year by using the DL 26 times. The Royals, with the most roster moves so far and through the use of 57 players (a team record, the ML record is 59 set by Cleveland and San Diego in 2002), has used the DL 22 times.