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Royals put on the hits in victory marred by nasty brawl
By Sam Mellinger/McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Catchers and baseballs beware: The Royals, to this point one of the American League's most inept teams, are hitting everything in sight.
Baseballs get smacked with bats, advertisement boards get hit with home-run balls, and bleach-blond catchers get slugged with fists. Maybe this is a two-day fluke, where the previously nice and offensively challenged Royals roll out two wins, 23 runs, 38 hits and a few punches.
Or maybe the 14-3 demolition of the previously first-place Chicago White Sox on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium is another small step on the franchise's path back to relevance.
"I think everyone understands the offensive part of the game can go in cycles," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "The thing that's most encouraging to me is to go along with some of the key hits we've had, we're mixing in the slug hit with it."
The fight happened in the fifth inning, when Miguel Olivo took a third consecutive pitch high and tight. He tossed his helmet, ran toward pitcher D.J. Carrasco, and in the fracas landed a punch on the top of catcher A.J. Pierzynski's head.
The benches cleared, with Olivo, Carrasco and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen all getting ejected. Two innings later, Royals pitcher Zack Greinke was booted for hitting Nick Swisher in the hip with a fastball. Because both benches had been warned, Hillman took an automatic ejection as well.
All that drama overshadowed the Royals' best offensive performance of the year. These Royals are suddenly looking a lot like the potent Beltran-Dye-Damon-Sweeney teams of the early 2000s.
Mike Aviles homered in his third four-hit game of a breakout rookie season. Billy Butler had three hits, including a double, and is 12 for 27 with nine RBIs in his last seven games. Even Mitch Maier got in on the act with his first three-hit game.
And Jose Guillen hit one of the longest home runs of the season at The K. It came off an 88-mph fastball from White Sox starter Clayton Richard - a former backup quarterback at Michigan - that caught too much of the plate.
The ball bounced off the Watson's ad board 438 feet from home plate in the left-center fountains and up the grassy hill behind. The ball would've rolled into the dirt construction zone behind the light standards if not for a small green wall.
"With the big park we have you're just trying to hit the ball in some gaps and get some base runners," Aviles said. "We've been fortunate some balls have dropped."
With all that offense, Greinke didn't need to be nearly as good as he was - two runs, six hits, no walks and six strikeouts in setting a new career high with his ninth win.
This was classic Greinke, too, with a fastball consistently touching 95 mph and all four of his pitches changing speeds and eye levels. In one sequence against Orlando Cabrera, Greinke threw a 94-mph fastball, a 67-mph curveball, and a 93-mph fastball.
His worst outing of the year came in his last start against the White Sox. They feasted mostly on fastballs that day, so Greinke was ready to mix in more off-speed pitches this time.
Turns out he didn't have to. The life on his fastball, combined with the Royals' offense, kept the White Sox out in the field on an oppressively hot afternoon.
"That's the game right there, I think," Greinke says. "That's the hottest I ever remember pitching. Just warming up, it was amazing, the heat. That one long inning, it has to kill the defense and the pitcher being out there like that."
© 2008, The Kansas City Star.
Visit The Star Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.kansascity.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
Subscribe To Lake AlertsBaseballs get smacked with bats, advertisement boards get hit with home-run balls, and bleach-blond catchers get slugged with fists. Maybe this is a two-day fluke, where the previously nice and offensively challenged Royals roll out two wins, 23 runs, 38 hits and a few punches.
Or maybe the 14-3 demolition of the previously first-place Chicago White Sox on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium is another small step on the franchise's path back to relevance.
"I think everyone understands the offensive part of the game can go in cycles," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "The thing that's most encouraging to me is to go along with some of the key hits we've had, we're mixing in the slug hit with it."
The fight happened in the fifth inning, when Miguel Olivo took a third consecutive pitch high and tight. He tossed his helmet, ran toward pitcher D.J. Carrasco, and in the fracas landed a punch on the top of catcher A.J. Pierzynski's head.
The benches cleared, with Olivo, Carrasco and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen all getting ejected. Two innings later, Royals pitcher Zack Greinke was booted for hitting Nick Swisher in the hip with a fastball. Because both benches had been warned, Hillman took an automatic ejection as well.
All that drama overshadowed the Royals' best offensive performance of the year. These Royals are suddenly looking a lot like the potent Beltran-Dye-Damon-Sweeney teams of the early 2000s.
Mike Aviles homered in his third four-hit game of a breakout rookie season. Billy Butler had three hits, including a double, and is 12 for 27 with nine RBIs in his last seven games. Even Mitch Maier got in on the act with his first three-hit game.
And Jose Guillen hit one of the longest home runs of the season at The K. It came off an 88-mph fastball from White Sox starter Clayton Richard - a former backup quarterback at Michigan - that caught too much of the plate.
The ball bounced off the Watson's ad board 438 feet from home plate in the left-center fountains and up the grassy hill behind. The ball would've rolled into the dirt construction zone behind the light standards if not for a small green wall.
"With the big park we have you're just trying to hit the ball in some gaps and get some base runners," Aviles said. "We've been fortunate some balls have dropped."
With all that offense, Greinke didn't need to be nearly as good as he was - two runs, six hits, no walks and six strikeouts in setting a new career high with his ninth win.
This was classic Greinke, too, with a fastball consistently touching 95 mph and all four of his pitches changing speeds and eye levels. In one sequence against Orlando Cabrera, Greinke threw a 94-mph fastball, a 67-mph curveball, and a 93-mph fastball.
His worst outing of the year came in his last start against the White Sox. They feasted mostly on fastballs that day, so Greinke was ready to mix in more off-speed pitches this time.
Turns out he didn't have to. The life on his fastball, combined with the Royals' offense, kept the White Sox out in the field on an oppressively hot afternoon.
"That's the game right there, I think," Greinke says. "That's the hottest I ever remember pitching. Just warming up, it was amazing, the heat. That one long inning, it has to kill the defense and the pitcher being out there like that."
© 2008, The Kansas City Star.
Visit The Star Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.kansascity.com.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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