Royals host Twins (series II) Recap

The Twinkies came to Kansas City with the Royals and their fans high on life after taking 2 of three from the Yankees. The good feelings were not going to last as the bats didn't show up and the Royals lost the first 2 games, they salvaged the last game of the series and finished the first home stand 3-3.

Game 1: Gil Meche's early struggles continued as he gave up 5 runs in 6 innings and he lost his second match with Hernandez and the Twins 5-0. Meche was followed by Yabuta and Ramirez as they pitched 3 innings of shutout relief. The offense obviously didn't show and Guillen in particular was terrible going 0 for 4 with 2 k's and 5 LOB.

Player of the game: Alex Gordon, 2-4 raising his average to .317.

Game 2: Brett Tomko was the stopper last week ending a 2-game losing streak, this time he wasn't so successful as the Royals got shut out again 2-0. Tomko however, pitched well allowing just 2 runs in 6 innings. Ramirez, Mahey and Nunez followed with 3 scoreless innings.

Player of the game: Brett Tomko, who expected a a 2.08 record in 2 starts?

Game 3: Brian Bannister got the start in the finale and he was fantastic throwing a complete game allowing only an un-earned run to score. The bullpen got a much needed day off and the offense finally re-appeared scoring (gasp) 5 runs.

Player of the game: Brian Bannister, he pitched the Royals first complete game and halted the losing at 3 games.

Look at the numbers:

• Meche is now sporting an ugly 7.13 ERA
• Meche has allowed 29 base-runners in 17.2 innings
• 18 scorless innings Twins pitchers tossed at the Royals (26 overall)
• 12 consecutive games Billy Butler has hit in so far
• Alex Gordon didn't hit his third home run last year until May 23rd
• The Royals were outscored 8-5 in the series yet out hit the Twins 21-20
• 1/2, the number of games out of 1st place the Royals are.