Series preview - Kansas City Royals April 20th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Better late than never…Here’s the series preview for the Kanas City Royals.
The Royals head into the series already 6 games behind the Al Central leading Twins. On Wednesday they finally snapped a 6 game losing streak by narrowly sliding by the Tigers 4-3. The Royals are a team that just doesn’t seem to get better. They made an effort in the off season to improve by signing Gile Meche to a five year $55 million contract. If you’re not familiar with Gil Meche, just note that he’s an extremely overpaid, mediocre pitcher.
Unfortunately for the Royals, they have so many weaknesses, that they can’t even pretend that Meche could be an answer. The Twins won’t face Meche this series. Instead, the match ups looks like this:
- Friday: Odalis Perez (0-2, 9.26 ERA) vs. Sidney Ponson (1-1, 8.18 ERA)
- Saturday: Zach Greinke (1-2, 3.95 ERA) vs. Boof Bonser (0-1 6.89 ERA)
- Sunday: Jorge De La Rosa (1-1, 4.34 ERA) vs. Ramon Ortiz (3-0, 2.05 ERA)
Perez’s numbers don’t reflect one horrible start, like Ponson. He’s been consistently terrible and even with Kansas City’s lack of options, you have to wonder how much longer they’ll put up with him. Greinke’s start to the season was encouraging, but he’s coming up a start at Detroit in which he couldn’t escape the first inning. Still, Saturday’s match up seems to give the Royals the best chance of winning.
The Lineup
- Jason Larue, C
- Ryan Shealy, 1B
- Mark Grudzielanek, 2B
- Alex Gordon, 3B
- Tony Pena, JR, SS
- Emil Brown, LF
- David Dejesus, CF
- Mark Teahan, RF
- Mike Sweeney, DH
The Royals also have Reggie Sanders who’s been playing about every other day. David Dejesus and John Buck are off to the best starts for the Royals while their most veteran player, Mike Sweeney is batting just .195 with no extra base hits.
The Bullpen
The Royals have Octavio Dotel for closing, but he’s currently on the DL, so David Riske is filling that role. Other than Riske, their bullpen has been decent so far; it’s the starters and lack of offense that have been losing games.
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