Royals' bats remain silent in Boston
07/19/2006
BOSTON -- If the operators working the manual scoreboard on the Green Monster during Wednesday afternoon's game had left up Tuesday night's numbers, they could have saved themselves a lot of time. The only difference in Wednesday's game was a new source of illumination, as the glaring sun replaced the stadium lights.
Coming up on the short end of a game dominated by pitching for the second night in a row, the Royals lost, 1-0, at Fenway Park. The Red Sox swept the Royals, with their three victories coming by a total of three runs.
"We got two -- or actually three -- really good pitching performances and we wasted them," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "[We're] having trouble lining things up. ... Lining things up in our offense.
Royals southpaw Mark Redman pitched one of his best games of the season, allowing one run and seven hits over eight innings, but he was outdueled by Josh Beckett, who pitched eight scoreless innings.
"Yeah it was wasted," Bell said of Redman's start. "He had fairly easy innings for the most part. It's not always the pitch count, it's the kind of innings that he had. And in the past, his tougher innings have been later on in the game and he seemed OK to go back out [in the eighth]."
Redman had won six consecutive decisions and easily could have won No. 7, but the Royals' offense was shut out for the second straight night. The Royals have not scored a run since the sixth inning of Monday's game.
Like starter Brandon Duckworth on Tuesday night, Redman was given little help from a struggling Royals offense.
"You can look at it as being frustrating, but you can say, 'Hey, we're right in it,'" Redman said. "We're playing good baseball. We're not backing down and we're not giving up. Things aren't going our way right now [but if] we keep playing this way, eventually it's gonna turn around again for us."
Manny Ramirez provided the Boston offense when he belted the first pitch of the fourth inning over the Green Monster for his 25th homer this season and 460th of his career.
"Not much to it," Redman said of the homer. "It was a first-pitch changeup. He just got a pitch maybe he was looking for and out over the plate, but it was down. [A] home run. You have to take that. I can't say it was a mistake pitch. It was a good pitch. You just gotta tip your hat to Manny. He got it up in the air and over the fence. It was a good game.
"When you're facing Boston nothing is easy. This team is a tough team. You just have to make good pitches and try and get them to swing at your pitch."
The Royals had several opportunities to end their scoring drought, but they could not capitalize with runners on base.
Kansas City's biggest chance came in the sixth inning after singles by Doug Mientkiewicz and Matt Stairs loaded the bases with two outs. Beckett worked a full count to Emil Brown, who hit a fly ball to right field that was awkwardly intercepted by center fielder Coco Crisp from right fielder Gabe Kapler.
Angel Berroa doubled to lead off the third inning and was advanced to third base on a Paul Phillips groundout. It was the first time a Royals runner had reached third base since the sixth inning of Monday's game.
But Berroa was stranded after a Joey Gathright strikeout and a well-hit liner by David DeJesus that gravitated directly towards the glove of Crisp.
"The bats kind of quieted down this series, but I guess we'll have to give credit to the Red Sox pitchers for that," infielder Tony Graffanino said. "We had no runs yesterday and no runs today, so they did their job for sure. We have to look at it the positive way. We're playing good baseball. We were in every game on this trip except for one. ... If we keep playing as well as we're playing, sooner or later things will start rolling our way and we'll win ballgames."
The eighth inning provided a glimmer of hope for the Royals after DeJesus hit a one-out double and was advanced to third base on an Esteban German groundout.
Mientkiewicz stepped to the plate as a visitor in the place he once called home and and fell behind 1-2 to Beckett. Mientkiewicz worked a full-count on an eight-pitch at-bat, but was only able to loft the ball to Ramirez, his former teammate.
Jonathan Papelbon came on in the ninth inning and worked around a leadoff walk to get his 29th save of the season.
"Maybe catching some breaks, maybe something's missing, who knows?" Graffanino said. "We're playing with what we have in here, and we're playing well. Detroit's a good team [and] Boston's a good team. On paper, they're probably not the best matchups for us. Again, this was a good road trip for us. We easily could have won 6 out of 7 ballgames."
Unfortunately for the Royals, they didn't.
Source: http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/
BOSTON -- If the operators working the manual scoreboard on the Green Monster during Wednesday afternoon's game had left up Tuesday night's numbers, they could have saved themselves a lot of time. The only difference in Wednesday's game was a new source of illumination, as the glaring sun replaced the stadium lights.
Coming up on the short end of a game dominated by pitching for the second night in a row, the Royals lost, 1-0, at Fenway Park. The Red Sox swept the Royals, with their three victories coming by a total of three runs.
"We got two -- or actually three -- really good pitching performances and we wasted them," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "[We're] having trouble lining things up. ... Lining things up in our offense.
Royals southpaw Mark Redman pitched one of his best games of the season, allowing one run and seven hits over eight innings, but he was outdueled by Josh Beckett, who pitched eight scoreless innings.
"Yeah it was wasted," Bell said of Redman's start. "He had fairly easy innings for the most part. It's not always the pitch count, it's the kind of innings that he had. And in the past, his tougher innings have been later on in the game and he seemed OK to go back out [in the eighth]."
Redman had won six consecutive decisions and easily could have won No. 7, but the Royals' offense was shut out for the second straight night. The Royals have not scored a run since the sixth inning of Monday's game.
Like starter Brandon Duckworth on Tuesday night, Redman was given little help from a struggling Royals offense.
"You can look at it as being frustrating, but you can say, 'Hey, we're right in it,'" Redman said. "We're playing good baseball. We're not backing down and we're not giving up. Things aren't going our way right now [but if] we keep playing this way, eventually it's gonna turn around again for us."
Manny Ramirez provided the Boston offense when he belted the first pitch of the fourth inning over the Green Monster for his 25th homer this season and 460th of his career.
"Not much to it," Redman said of the homer. "It was a first-pitch changeup. He just got a pitch maybe he was looking for and out over the plate, but it was down. [A] home run. You have to take that. I can't say it was a mistake pitch. It was a good pitch. You just gotta tip your hat to Manny. He got it up in the air and over the fence. It was a good game.
"When you're facing Boston nothing is easy. This team is a tough team. You just have to make good pitches and try and get them to swing at your pitch."
The Royals had several opportunities to end their scoring drought, but they could not capitalize with runners on base.
Kansas City's biggest chance came in the sixth inning after singles by Doug Mientkiewicz and Matt Stairs loaded the bases with two outs. Beckett worked a full count to Emil Brown, who hit a fly ball to right field that was awkwardly intercepted by center fielder Coco Crisp from right fielder Gabe Kapler.
Angel Berroa doubled to lead off the third inning and was advanced to third base on a Paul Phillips groundout. It was the first time a Royals runner had reached third base since the sixth inning of Monday's game.
But Berroa was stranded after a Joey Gathright strikeout and a well-hit liner by David DeJesus that gravitated directly towards the glove of Crisp.
"The bats kind of quieted down this series, but I guess we'll have to give credit to the Red Sox pitchers for that," infielder Tony Graffanino said. "We had no runs yesterday and no runs today, so they did their job for sure. We have to look at it the positive way. We're playing good baseball. We were in every game on this trip except for one. ... If we keep playing as well as we're playing, sooner or later things will start rolling our way and we'll win ballgames."
The eighth inning provided a glimmer of hope for the Royals after DeJesus hit a one-out double and was advanced to third base on an Esteban German groundout.
Mientkiewicz stepped to the plate as a visitor in the place he once called home and and fell behind 1-2 to Beckett. Mientkiewicz worked a full-count on an eight-pitch at-bat, but was only able to loft the ball to Ramirez, his former teammate.
Jonathan Papelbon came on in the ninth inning and worked around a leadoff walk to get his 29th save of the season.
"Maybe catching some breaks, maybe something's missing, who knows?" Graffanino said. "We're playing with what we have in here, and we're playing well. Detroit's a good team [and] Boston's a good team. On paper, they're probably not the best matchups for us. Again, this was a good road trip for us. We easily could have won 6 out of 7 ballgames."
Unfortunately for the Royals, they didn't.
Source: http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/
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