Still reasons to watch the Royals

There are two months left for the Royals to stagger and stumble to the finish line. Every now and then they will surprise and yesterday was one of those games. This game seemed like so many others in this disappointment of a season. The Royals appeared to be on the verge of being no-hit after seven innings by James Shields who had struggled of late. He had a 7.36 ERA in his previous 3 starts, but nothing like the Royals bats to bring a struggling pitcher out of the doldrums. Brian Bannister was pitching magnificently himself. He pitched 7 full innings giving up 5 hits while not issuing a walk and striking out 7.

When John Buck hit a single to RF in the 8th the Rays started to unravel. Ryan Freel came in to PR for Buck which turned out to be a nice move as Freel is a much better base runner. Alex Gordon sacrificed Freel to 2nd but both were safe on a bad throw to 2nd by the Rays catcher and Freel going on to 3rd. Mitch Maier who enjoyed what might be his best day in MLB drove in Freel for 1-0 lead. Maier ended the day 2 for 3 with a walk 3 RBI's and even threw out BJ Upton at home for an assist. Back to 8th as this next turn of events was not the usual for the Royals. The Rays detecting the hit and run being on called a pitch out and had Maier caught between 1st and 2nd with Gordon dancing off of 3rd. This is the type of situation the Royals generally end up in some poor decision making panicky double play disaster. Instead Maier stays alive and keeps the Rays occupied long enough for Gordon to steal home so to speak and he ends up at 2nd on the late throw trying to get Gordon at home. The Rays messed this up but credit needs to be given to Maier and Gordon for not panicking and playing heads up ball and giving the Royals a 2-0 lead.

Low and behold but out comes Joakim Soria to pitch in the bottom of the 8th with the Royals having just gotten the lead. This makes two weekends in a row that Soria is put in a situation to get a 2 inning save for his team and I could not be happier at this development. Nine days spanned the duo of six out saves for Soria and he had two more traditional one inning saves in back to back games at Baltimore in between. I don't know if it is Trey Hillman finally coming to the realization that it is ok to use your best relief pitcher in this fashion or if it is Hillman finally convincing Joakim that it is ok for him to pitch this way, but for a team such as the Royals it is a good thing. Wins are hard to come by for this team and you have to use the few quality players you have to your best advantage. This is not the way in today's game for your 'closer' to be used but it sure used to be and who says you can't go back once in a while and try methods that once worked well. I remember Dan Quisenberry being used for 3 innings of relief at times and 2 innings on many occasions.

The Royals scored two more in the 9th as Maier's single drove in Mike Jacobs and Ryan Freel. The Rays got a single run in the 9th and the Royals won a very entertaining game 4-1.