Following a disheartening sweep at the hands of the Angels punctuated by a late-inning lead squandering thanks almost entirely to defensive miscues, the Royals placed Joakim Soria on the DL retroactive to May 8th. That appearance on May 8th was not a smooth one to say the least, so his trip to the DL was on the minds of many before any announcement was made.
So after a weekend of pretty bad news for the Royals, it is time to look at the silver lining. Following the unfortunately short series against the Athletics, the Royals face the Orioles and Indians at home. Yes, the Orioles have seemed to have the Royals' number over the past few years, but those three series are against last-place teams. Oakland is just 6 - 10 at home, and Cleveland and Baltimore are a combined 9 - 20 on the road.
If Soria had to go on the DL, it would seem that now would be as good a time as any for that to happen, especially with Hochevar looking unstoppable in the PCL and Ponson's start coming up on Tuesday. Hochevar takes Ponson's spot in the rotation with Ponson moving to the bullpen following a very good start against the floundering Mariners. This is probably the ideal situation for Ponson having to move to the bullpen. He goes there out of necessity--there was no other pitcher who could have gotten called up, and Hoch's development was not going to be altered by throwing him in the pen this season--and with a little bit of confidence (not that one ever got the sense he was lacking in that even after a rough outing) to carry over from his last start.
Even with Jack the Mexicutioner heading to the DL, there is hopefully little to worry about until the St. Louis series when Soria is eligible to come off the DL assuming a clean bill of health.
Hopefully.
After that, the Royals get to try to take care of business themselves, facing Detroit and Chicago at home in two weeks--the latter facing the tough task of going to Toronto and Anaheim and getting Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and the surging Twins at home.
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