O’Sullivan had a brief, and successful, stint in the pen before taking over the 5th spot in the Royals rotation, which hasn’t been quite as fruitful. As a reliever O’Sullivan, O’Sullivan posted a .86 WHIP and 1.29 ERA in 7 innings. As a starter, O’Sullivan’s WHIP has risen to 1.38, while his ERA has skyrocketed to 6.09 spanning 6 starts, 2 of the quality variety. He made a relief appearance on Sunday since his last start ten days ago.
Galarraga was phenomenal last time out, allowing only 3 hits and 0 ER in 7 innings. He has not bee consistently good in almost two months, but perhaps the Royals are just the potion he needs. Note that opponents are hitting .185 against him the first time through the order, and .302 after that. He’s also prone to the long ball, allowing 13 in 16 starts this year.
– Rhymes is batting .360 during August.
– Boesch is 6 for 18 during the homestand.
Today’s lineup coming soon.
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Will Rhymes, 2B
3. Johnny Damon, DH
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Brennan Boesch, RF
6. Ryan Raburn, LF
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Ramon Santiago, SS
9. Gerald Laird, C
Baseball is fun.
Laird .202
Alright…G-money is over .200!
I think Leyland needs to help out Laird here to protect his Mendoza accomplishment, and sit him for the rest of the season so he doesn’t lose it.
Like Ted Williams, I am sure Gerald Laird is no coward. He will take his rips… and get that average well above the threshold.
.204 now.
It’s not every day you see “Gerald Laird” and “Ted Williams” in the same sentence…
Apparently Leyland is going to keep bringing Valverde in in the 8th inning until it works out well, at which point he can say, see, I’m right.
Maybe next time…
Just because it always turns out badly is no reason to stop doing it…
I don’t understand smokey’s logic…oh wait I answered my own question.
…you didn’t ask a question. Is that part of the joke?
It was purely rhetorical, as in “why would he use Valverde in the 8th again??”
What a waste of really nice pitching by Armando, Coke, and Perry.
Since the All-Star break, Valverde has made 4 appearances in the 8th inning before today. Here is his line for those 4 appearances: 6 IP 6 H 10 BB 8 R 7 ER
That’s an ERA of 10.5 and a 2.67 WHIP.
Add in this 8th inning and we’re at an ERA of 11.37 and a WHIP of 2.84.
JL just had to go and kill my buzz.
Oh well, we still can bring in for the 9th inning…Brad Thomas…oh this will work out well…
Cancel out those Laird player of the game votes
re: in light of recent results, can JL’s decision to bring out Valverde in the 8th inning be attributed to: a) senility, b) stubbornness, c) questionable management or d) all the above?
…just because you don’t win the lottery in the 200 times prior, doesn’t mean you’re going to win it the ‘next time’
if Coke (who should have probably been brought back out to start the 8th) or Perry give up two in the 8th, you write it off… but if its Valverde…
I am so disgusted. What is it with Leyland’s man-love for Perry. Must he ALWAYS come out for the 8th? Coke was throwing strikes! I never leave the game before it’s over but I did today. Such mismanagement.
I missed today’s game, but a look at the boxscore reveals
A) The offense went to sleep after the 2nd inning (12 inning game and no substitutions…..hmmm) and
B) Leyland mismanaged the bullpen……….again.
It’s kind of sad when you can take a quick glance at the box and tell when the MANAGER had a bad day.
You are so correct, Vince. Again, he puts Boesch behind Cabby. He absolutely will not drop him down and keep him down in the lineup, let alone playing him every single day. He puts way too much pressure on that kid. Again, as soon as Leland stopped Phil Coke, I knew the pattern all too well. He cannot keep himself from fiddling with the bullpen.
MLB Network is already naming Josh Hamilton as MVP and that young pitcher as ROY In the same breadth, they have Boesch pictured next to Jackson as one of the ROY candidates and that’s because Jim Leland has his favorites. It’s on Jim Leland if they don’t get those awards, imo. It infuriates me that it is Leland that keeps us from playing to our full potential. This team is being mismanaged, again, by their very own manager. We don’t have the best team, but we have a good enough team to compete with anyone, but Jim just won’t go full out or he can’t get his players to.
Same o, same o. I’m so tired of it.
It’s all about beating the Royals–if we can’t beat the Royals, we’ll never get anywhere.
In 2006 we went 14-4 vs the Royals, and ended up in the World Series.
Remarkably, since then we are 33 – 33 vs the Royals, including 9 – 9 last season (10 – 8 and we win the division).
In the same time span, Minnesota is 42 – 24 vs the Royals
Not just the Royals. With 72 games against division rivals, you absolutely have to be able to win a majority of those games to take the division. Tigers this year are 24-26 vs Central teams. The Twins are 33-18 (the only team with a winning record!). That’s a difference of 8.5 games. The Tigers are 9.0 games out. The road to the World Series starts through MN, KC, CLE and CHI. NY, TB, BOS and TX come later.