Mariners Preview

The Losing Streak hits the road for three in the Pacific Northwest.

THE MARINERS

If there’s a team the Royals can win at least one from, it would have to be the Mariners. Seattle is coming off a sweep at the hands of the Angels and has dropped nine of their last 13.

Seattle is actually the one team in the league that the Royals look equal to, at least on the offensive side. Seattle is dead last in the AL in basehits, total bases, AVG, OBA and SLG.

Here’s how the two teams look:

Team	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Royals	.261	.317	.399	.717
Mariners	.255	.314	.392	.706

This is a team that went out in the offseason and spent millions adding Richie Sexton and Adrian Beltre. Money helps, but you have to know how to spend it.

It’s the pitching that’s keeping the Mariners in the ballgames. Their team ERA is just below the league average at 4.73. And, of course, they have one of the top “closers” in all of baseball in Eddie Guardado. Actually, given their offense, if the Mariners had pitching like the Royals, their record would probably be like…the Royals. Duh.

THE MATCHUPS

Mon – Runelvys Hernandez (8-10, 4.93) vs. Feliz Hernandez (1-1, 0.69)
Tues – Zack Greinke (3-14, 6.09) vs. Joel Pinero (4-7, 5.69)
Wed – DJ Carrasco (5-6, 4.37) vs. Jamie Moyer (9-4, 4.34)

We're happy to see Royal-killer Ryan Franklin will not be making a start in this series.

THE PLAYERS

Another series, another hot slugger is waiting. Richie Sexson has been en fuego since the month of July when he finished second in the player of the month balloting. (I didn’t know they kept track of second place finishes. Maybe he got a nice plaque.) Since July 4, Sexson is hitting .309 with 11 home runs and has hit safely in 24 of his last 35 games.

Ichiro! Is Ichiro! A base hit machine, although he just endured an 0-22 slump at the plate. Since Ichiro! Is supposed to hit about .350 and collect over 200 base hits, this cannot bode well for the Royals pitchers. We see a couple of multi-hit games in his immediate future. Like Monday and Tuesday.

Raul Ibanez has reached base in 37 of his last 43 games…Willie Bloomquist has raised his average almost 80 points since early July. He was at .197

ROYALS TO WATCH

We’re not sure you really want to watch the Royals at this point.

Remember the time, Zack Greinke made Richie Sexson look foolish on a 61 MPH curve? Maybe he’ll do something like that again.

That’s all we’ve got.

Tiger Preview

So, are they gonna fight? Runelvys goes on Saturday.

THE TIGERS

Detroit comes to KC struggling, winning only one of their last seven. Of course, next to the Royals, that record qualifies as a success. The difference with the Tigers is before their recent slide, they were actually flirting with a .500 record and some respectability. They are three years into their youth movement and the heat is on Alan Trammell as many in Motown feel that the improvement from their 119-loss season back in 2003 hasn’t been enough.

The Tigers are one of those teams that are difficult to pin down. They’re good enough to be a .500 club, but they have yet to put together a sustained run of victories. They were 11-11 in April, 12-15 in May, 13-13 in June and 14-15 in July. That’s some consistency.

Their starting pitching is alright, with an ERA of 4.50 and their bullpen has been surprisingly good with an ERA of 3.50. The proof of the strength of the bullpen comes from a 39-7 record when leading after six innings. This club doesn’t cough up that many leads, which could spell trouble for the Royals given their recent history of falling behind early.

THE MATCHUPS

FRI - Jason Johnson (7-9, 4.06) vs. Jose Lima (4-10, 6.84)
SAT – Mike Maroth (9-11, 4.89) vs. Runelvys Hernandez (8-10, 4.93)
SUN – Sean Douglass (4-2, 4.08) vs. Mike Wood (3-4, 3.82)

THE PLAYERS

Magglio Ordonez is a Royal killer. In a little over 100 lifetime games against the Royals, Ordonez has a line of .328/.378/.559 with an OPS of .937. No wonder he opted to stay in the AL Central. Well, that and the fact the Tigers panicked and overpaid him.

Ordonez missed the first couple of months due to a hernia, but has played awfully well since his return. From July 1st to the present, he has 36 base hits, the most in the AL in that stretch. Since the All-Star break, he has been one of the top hitters in all of baseball, posting splits of .353/.407/.500.

Pudge Rodriguez missed the last four games due to a suspension and you have to wonder if the time off will help him rejuvenate his game. He’s struggled since the break, going .298/.295/.464. And no, we didn’t transpose the BA and the OBP numbers. His on base percentage is actually less than his batting average.

Placido Polanco has hit safely in 31 of his 40 games since joining the Tigers…Chris Shelton was their player of the month for July…Carlos Guillen is coming out of a slump going 11 for his last 35, after enduring a 9-53 stretch…Brandon Inge has fallen back to Earth after a hot start to the season. He’s .202/.278/.340 since the All-Star break.

ROYALS TO WATCH

Battling a slump over the last couple of weeks, David DeJesus has to be pleased to see the Tigers come to town. He has been nails against Detroit this season, going .395/.478/.632 in the 10 games between the two teams.

Mike Sweeney on the other hand has struggled with only eight hits in 40 at bats.

And did we mention Runelvys pitches on Saturday?


Both photos AP Photo/Duane Burleson
July 17, 2005

On The Record

Here's some of the gems as the Royals losing streak approached a team-record 12 games:

"If I get that call on the 2-2 count, it's a different ballgame."

Jose Lima
Topeka Capital-Journal 8/7/05

After giving up seven runs in less than five innings, Lima needs to realize his outings rarely come down to one single pitch.


“If you ain’t got heart, you might as well pack your stuff up and go home. That’s what it’s gonna take. And I can question that on this team in a lot of people. I will. If they don’t like it, I’ll tell them. If you want me to name names — if they read this article and don’t like it — I’ll point them out.”

Terrence Long
KC Star 8/8/05

Long finally makes some noise.


“In some respect, I think we’re content with it. I’m not. I guess everyone takes it different. I don’t like losing."

Terrence Long
KC Star 8/8/05

It about time someone on this team stepped forward with a statement like this. That is was Terrence Long says volumes about the Royals.


"Everybody knows how I feel about coming back here. I want to finish my career here."
Matt Stairs
KCRoyals.com 8/9/05

As much as we love Stairs, he might want to rethink that statement.


“Little popper, out into left centerfield. Out goes Berroa…and he drops it. And now he kicks it.”

Denny Mathews
WHB 8/9/05

After Berroa recovered to get a forceout, Denny said the Royals were “fortunate” to get an out. Little did he know what was to follow.


“Flyball toward the left field corner. Ambres into the corner. He dropped it. In comes the tying run.”

Denny Mathews
WHB 8/9/05

See?


“The Indians score 11. That’s right. Eleven.”

Denny Mathews
WHB 8/9/05


“This is the worst I’ve ever been through in my 10 or 11 years here. The absolute worst. I don’t ever remember anything like this.”

Mike Sweeney
KC Star 8/10/05

No argument from us.


“Hopefully, this is rock bottom, because if this is not, I don’t know what is.”

Buddy Bell
KC Star 8/11/05

We said the same thing after Sunday.


“I remember when I got my first glove.”

Mark Teahen
KC Star 8/10/05

If Teahen still knows where it is, he might want to loan it to Angel Berroa who apparently has misplaced his.

Buy Your Tickets

Yes, this is irony. Just as the Royals are hitting the lowest point in franchise history, they are honoring their greatest moment.

We have mentioned the World Series Reunion Weekend before, but with recent reports of lagging ticket sales, WTP has decided to make another push.

Ever since the special promotions were announced last winter, we've been looking forward to this upcoming weekend. This is a must-see event for any Royals fan. It doesn't matter if you were at the World Series games, watched them on TV or weren't even born yet. 1985 was the watershed moment for this franchise and deserves to still be celebrated. Especially now.

It's memories of that postseason that can help us through the miserable times like this week. Try it. Better than paying a therapist.

No matter how many games the Royals lose this season, no matter how many ninth inning leads get blown, and no matter how many times both Joe McEwing and Denny Hocking appear in the same lineup, we'll always have those flags in left field.

Get out there and support your team. We've got our tickets for this weekend and we hope to see you there.

For more info, please visit the Royals website.

WTP 2.0

Since the launching of Royals Authority about a month ago, I've been kicking around a couple of ideas as to what to do with WTP. We've got the recap and analysis angle covered at the Authority, so that left me with a couple of options.

After some brainstorming, I've come up with a couple of ideas that will hopefully enlighten as well as entertain while maintaining our allegiance to the Royals.

So for the remainder of the season, we're going back to hopefully posting something everyday here at WTP.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the week:

Thursday - Royal Quotes
Friday - Detroit Tigers Preview

As usual, we're flying by the seat of our pants. We'll see where this takes us.

Spread the word. WTP Version 2.0 is up and running!