So Banny went seven strong allowing only a single to Adam Lind. Oh. And there were the six walks. I'll not say too much about this statistical oddity (apparently he throws a no-seam fastball and the ball was slipping a lot on him, but he didn't care too much since its movement was unpredictable) other than that he'll likely not be too successful if he were to carry that 2:6 K:BB ratio (or 3:8 on the season) through to the rest of his starts. Still, his WHIP does sit at a mere 1.00 and his ERA rests at 0.69 through 13 innings of work, and so far his wildness seems to have actually worked in his favor as hitters continue to struggle to get good wood on his pitches.
I will say that the Royals' pitching staff's newfound propensity for giving up free baserunners is starting to concern this fan. The walks allowed are starting to really mount up lately, and these extra base runners are going to start killing this team as the season drags on.
The Royals actually managed to get some runs on the board, seven to be precise. Of course, the following day, the offense is once again nowhere to be found. In the past week, they have made Zach Miner, Armando Galarraga, and now Scott Richmond look like world beaters. At least they are drawing some walks... It's just that those walks aren't turning into runs because the Royals aren't actually hitting the ball.
Not that this is the biggest concern today, as Gil Meche left with two outs in the fourth after giving up five runs. Meche struggled with control for his second straight start, this time the lack of control manifested itself in walks rather than troubles with pitch location as fatigue set in--which is what seemed to happen in Cleveland last Thursday. A control freak (his K:BB going into the game was 25:4), Meche walked an astonishing five batters in his 3 2/3 innings. His five walks went along with seven hits. He struggled to keep his pitch count down (he threw more than 30 pitches in a laborious second and had 83 pitches when he motioned for the trainer and took himself out of the game). Earlier in the season, he had complained of back stiffness, which Yahoo is saying caused his early exit, although there seems to have been no word sent up to the booth yet. In the eighth, Lefebvre confirmed that it was lower back stiffness, so hopefully a little rest gets him back to normal.
Hopefully this is just back stiffness, which I believe Meche has dealt with early in the season for spots since coming to Kansas City. So far there have been no trips to the DL, let's hope it stays that way because the Royals cannot make it without an effective Gil Meche.
If anything encouraging happened today, it happened before the game, when Soria had another bullpen session.
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