Date: 9/28/10

Opponent: Kansas City Royals

Home/Away: Away

Starting Pitcher: Blackburn

Final Score: L 10-1

Record: 92-65

Recap: Ouch. And we continue to get pummeled by mediocre teams. Bad enough we got swept by the Tigers, but now we are in danger of being trounced by the lowly Royals. Oh, the agony! I won't go through the pain of reliving all the painful and ugly losses, because why bother? Honestly, these games don't matter, except for the possibility of securing home field advantage.

I can't get too upset one way or the other about how many runs we score. I mean, we're fielding lineups that include such crack offensive players as Drew Butera, Matt Tolbert, Ben Revere and Nick Punto (not that I don't appreciate each and every player for their individual talents, but you can't honestly say these players are huge producers right now). We've got a lot of injuries, with Mauer, Thome, and Hardy all currently unavailable. And we need to rest other players for the playoffs, so I'm not too upset about that. What bothers me is the rate at which we are allowing runs. It's somewhat alarming.

Okay, Liriano we can excuse because he got sick (and he wasn't doing too bad before that point). Pavano, however was atrocious (7 earned runs in 4 innings). He did pitch on an unusual amount of rest, which maybe wasn't so good for him. Duensing also struggled, giving up 5 runs in 6.2 innings. At least that wasn't so bad. We were playing the Tigers though, which doesn't bode well for facing the Yankees or Rays. Then Slowey and Blackburn have majorly struggled versus the Royals. Slowey isn't much of a concern to me since he might not even make the playoff roster, but Blackburn is more concerning. Hopefully it was just a little post-clinching swoon that we'll shake off. A win tomorrow would make me feel much better though. 

Maybe I'm just fretting over minor details. I just want our players healthy, and our pitchers for the playoffs ready to go. Wins are a bonus at this point. I can't handle another humiliating early exit. 

Best Moment: Uh, not getting shut out I guess. Not much else to get excited for.

Most Questionable Moment: Dick repeatedly struggling to pronounce Kila Ka'aihue's name. And then Bert butchering Ubaldo Jimenez's name. 

Worst Moment: I would just like to point that we scored 1 run against 3 Royals pitchers with ERAs of 5+. A little offense wouldn't be amiss

Quotations of the Day:

• "We're just getting beat around now, and they're having a little fun at our expense. Not much fun, but you have to weather the storm." - Ron Gardenhire
• "Up to this point, nothing good has happened on this road trip." - Ron Gardenhire

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Nick Blackburn (4.1 innings pitched, 8 hits, 2 walks, 2 home runs, 8 earned runs)

Game #152: Danny Valencia (0 for 4, 1 strikeout, 4 left on base)

Game #153: Jeff Manship (2.0 innings pitched, 4 hits, 1 walk, 4 earned runs) and Alex Burnett (0.2 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 walk, 2 home runs, 4 earned runs)

Game #154: Carl Pavano (4.0 innings pitched, 11 hits, 3 home runs, 7 earned runs, 1 loss)

Game #155: Brian Duensing (6.2 innings pitched, 7 hits, 4 walks, 2 home runs, 5 earned runs, 1 loss)

Game #156: Kevin Slowey (1.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 home run, 6 earned runs)

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