Royals fans can stop holding their breaths. For a day at least.

Yesterday afternoon, the Royals hosted the Tampa Bay Rays in the rubber match before leaving for Minnesota to take on the Twins. The game began like every other game so far in this young season, by which I mean THERE WERE NO RUNS SCORED BY THE ROYALS. At least for 3 innings. Then Jeremy Guthrie gave up a solo home run to Desmond Jennings at the top of the 4^th and I just knew the game was over and that the Royals would lose 1-0 AGAIN. 

However, the Royals strung together some hits and a crappy RBI from Billy Butler to score 2 runs in the bottom of the 4^th. Then, the Royals strung together a few more hits and Alex Gordon came to the plate and decided he had had enough of the Royals home run drought, smacking a 3-run shot over the Kauffman Stadium walls. It was marvelous and twitter almost broke over the joyous celebrations and sighs of relief from Royals Nation. The Royals ended up prevailing 7-3, which evened their record at 4-4.

  

Here is a link to Gordon’s home run.

Some quick notes: with the win, the Royals moved to 4-0 when scoring at least 4 runs, and 0-4 when scoring 3 or less. Their starting pitching has been lights out, with 7 quality starts in 8 games (and Jeremy Guthrie had a quality start for 5 innings in the one game that didn’t qualify). As long as they continue pitching like that (which there is likely to be some regression), the games will be up to the offense and the bullpen.

Kelvin Herrera looked shaky AGAIN, giving up 2 runs in the top of the 9^th. Although they turned out to be meaningless, the bullpen overall has given up 13 runs in 8 games. That is simply atrocious. Tim Collins is the worst of the bunch, having given of 4 runs this season in a total of 1 inning pitched. I am hoping that is due to the elbow inflammation he recently suffered. The Royals placed Collins on the Disabled List for the time being. Louis Coleman was avtivated, which I feel is good news. He was insanely good last year, throwing 32 strikeouts in 27 appearances with an ERA of 0.61. I think the Royals will be glad to have him back after their troubles this season.

Johnny Giavotella made his season debut, filling in for the injured Omar Infante (and also for the crappy Danny Valencia - he should stick to playing 3rd base. And learn how to hit). "Gio" had a decent game, going 1-3 with an RBI at the plate, and making a few standard plays at 2nd base. 

Finally, Alcides Escobar, who had another hit yesterday and is riding a 3-game hitting streak, was lights out on defense. He had a circus catch and 2 bare-handed grabs to throw out a runner, including the final out of the game, rescuing Herrera from a potentially disastrous 9^th inning. I have always enjoyed watching him play and I hope he can continue his recent hitting outburst. 

The Royals are off today and play the Twins tomorrow night. The Twins suck, so I am hoping for a sweep.