KansasCity.com/Posnanski: Royals are a terrible base-running team

One thing you can say about these Royals: They are reliable. I went out Thursday night with the tentative idea of writing about the remarkably bad base running they have exhibited this year. And it has been legendarily bad.

But here’s the thing about choosing a column topic before the game — the game has a knack of killing early ideas. I mean: If you go out to write about how well a team is pitching, the starter probably will give up nine runs. If you go out to write about how well a team is fielding, they’ll make three errors. It’s just how things work.

So, I had backup plans if the Royals ran the bases well on this night. I was open to writing something else if the Royals had given me something else. I should not have worried about it. First inning, Willie Bloomquist was on first and he took off on what looked like a hit-and-run play. Billy Butler hit a lazy fly ball to center field … Bloomquist did not see it. “Willie checked and couldn’t pick it up,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

White Sox center fielder Brian Anderson caught the pop-up, had plenty of time to set and throw out Bloomquist for the double play. First inning!

Second inning, Mark Teahen on first base, and he took off on what he said was a straight steal. Miguel Olivo hit a lazy fly ball to right field.

“Mark didn’t check,” Hillman said.

White Sox right fielder Jermaine Dye caught the pop-up, had plenty of time to set and throw out Teahen for the double play.

Like I say: These Royals are reliable.

Bleacher Report:  Is Luke Hochevar a Bust?

Hochevar’s started 30 major league games and thrown 180 innings: roughly one full season. In that time, he’s posted a 5.35 ERA and struck out only 93 batters. Neither mark is very good.

Naturally, performance like that falls well short of the No. 1 overall pick hype.

So Hochevar gets the “bust” tag, right?

Not so fast.

First, Hochevar’s been unlucky thus far. His miserable 62.4 percent strand rate is far below the league average and should regress to the mean, which is about 10 percent higher.

His career 4.62 FIP is much better than the ugly 5.35 ERA, and pegs him as a decent fifth starter in the majors.

While Hochevar hasn’t picked up many K’s, he does a good job limiting walks (just 3.2 BB/9) and homers (.9 HR/9). Batters find it difficult to lift his pitches (53.5 GB%) and they also struggle to hit liners (15.7 LD%).

Really, the only thing Hochevar doesn’t do well is strike out hitters. And given his groundball tendencies, that’s okay. Aaron Cook, Chien-Ming Wang, Jake Westbrook, and Roy Halladay have similar tendencies, and all four have carved out nice careers.

NBC Sports/Pouliot: Royals’ Moore lacks vision, should lack job

Disastrous.

It’s the word I used to describe the Royals’ offseason at the time that they made their one positive move. It is likely that getting Zack Greinke signed to a four-year deal likely will benefit the Royals’ long-term future more than the rest of the moves combined will take away from it. Still, it didn’t have to be like this.

Let’s review. Here are all the notable moves the team made over the winter:

...

12/11/2008 - Signed LHP Horacio Ramirez to a one-year, $1.8 million contract.

The first of two completely unreasonable moves. One could actually justify giving Ramirez a major league deal to pitch in relief, but the Royals signed him to start and gave him a rotation spot even after he performed as poorly as any player in the Cactus League. Fortunately, they did replace him after just one turn through the rotation, cutting their losses.

...

12/13/2008 - Signed RHP Kyle Farnsworth to a two-year, $9.25 million contract with a club option for 2011.

The second horrific move. The market for average relievers had already been set when Bob Howry jumped on a one-year, $2.75 million offer from the Giants. It never became clear what team the Royals competed against to sign Farnsworth.

Ponson positive for stimulant at WBC

Kansas City Royals pitcher Sidney Ponson tested positive for a stimulant during the World Baseball Classic and has been banned from international competition for two years.

Major League Baseball will not suspend Ponson. Under the drug rules, he will be treated as a first-time offender and is subject to a medical review and fine....

The International Baseball Federation said Ponson tested positive for Phentermine, a stimulant and appetite suppressant.

Source: Royals willing to trade non-core players - FOX Sports on MSN

So Zach Greinke is off limits.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore loathes the word “rebuilding.” He’s not necessarily ready to concede the 2009 season, even though his team is 31-40.

But a person with knowledge of the team’s plans said Moore will be open-minded to trade possibilities — if they bring talent and/or salary relief that would benefit the team in 2010 and beyond.

In that respect, his approach to this year’s trade deadline is similar to that of Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro, a competitor in the American League Central.

As a rival AL executive put it on Thursday: “Kansas City will talk about anyone outside their core players.”

Rany on the Royals: Release the Hounds

Fire the manager! Fire the hitting coach! Fire the hot dog guy!

But did anyone think to fire the trainer?

If a batter goes 1-for-10, it doesn’t mean he’s a bad hitter. If he goes 10-for-100, it’s time to find a replacement.  Swartz is like the batter who goes 50-for-500. The sample size is just too large. There are too many injuries that take longer than expected to heal. There are too many rehab snafus that deprive the Royals of their starting centerfielder, or destroy the career of a 25-year-old southpaw. There’s simply no way to wave off his track record as a stretch of bad luck, or to blame it on someone else. There isn’t anyone else.

Besides, the burden of proof shouldn’t be on me to prove that Swartz deserves to go; it should be on Swartz and the Royals to prove he should stay. Swartz has been the trainer for the Royals FOR NINETEEN SEASONS, the last 15 of which represent one of the worst 15-year stretches by a baseball team in major league history. EVERY SINGLE person involved with baseball operations has been replaced in that span – why should Swartz be the exception? This isn’t a court of law, it’s a sports team – when you’ve been involved with a team that’s this bad for so long, frankly, you’re guilty until proven innocent.

AJC: Braves reliever breaks hand punching door

Braves reliever Jeff Bennett broke a bone in his non-pitching hand when he punched a door near the dugout out of frustration during Wednesday night’s loss against the New York Yankees.

The right-hander, who has struggled for much of the season, was placed on the 15-day disabled list and left-hander Boone Logan was recalled from Class AAA Gwinnett to take his roster spot.

Bennett will have surgery to insert a pin in the break in his fifth metacarpal below the base of the pinky finger.

“I’m ashamed of myself,” he said after seeing the Braves’ hand specialist Thursday. “This is a professional sport; you handle yourself in a professional manner. I didn’t do that. … I’m just hopeful that [manager] Bobby [Cox] and [general manager] Frank [Wren] will give me another chance.

“A lot of things boiled up, and I didn’t handle the release of those very well.”

plus, the KC Star says Exam confirms Farnsworth has partial tear of right groin

KC Star - Royals notebook: Greinke bats eighth against Astros

Greinke is the first pitcher in Royals’ history to bat anywhere but ninth in the starting lineup. Center fielder Mitch Maier batted ninth.

“The thought process was more of wanting to bat Mitch and David DeJesus back-to-back,” Hillman said, “than it was to have Zack hit in front of an every-day position player.”

Hillman said he also wanted to limit the possibility of Greinke “blowing out” on the bases when the lineup recycled to the top.

Turns out, it really didn’t matter. Greinke and Maier each went hitless in three at-bats. Hillman never had to worry about Greinke running the bases.

“I didn’t feel too good up there,” Greinke admitted. “Three bad at-bats.”

plus, Torn labrum ends season for Crisp

Rany on the Royals: Worst. Five Game Stretch. Ever.

Remember when the Royals were “surprise contenders”? Yea, that was fun for two weeks.

The standard nomenclature in baseball deems a “blowout” to be a game decided by five runs or more. By that standard, the Royals have been blown out in five consecutive games.

These being the Royals, of course, you’d expect that this has happened to them before in the recent past. You would be wrong. The Royals had never lost five consecutive games by five or more runs. Hell, the Kansas City Athletics never did so.

The Royals are just the ninth team in the Retrosheet era – since 1954 – to lose five consecutive blowouts.

STL Post-Dispatch: Grand slam is a KO as Pujols calls the shot

After opening the third inning with a fly out, Pujols returned to the Cardinals clubhouse to review video. There he predicted to assistant hitting coach Mike Aldrete that his next at-bat would ricochet off the yet-to-open Royals Hall of Fame behind the visitors bullpen in left field. “He didn’t say he might hit the Hall of Fame. He said he would hit the Hall of Fame,” Aldrete recalled… When Meche finally threw the pitch, Pujols swatted it some 423 feet off a Hall of Fame window.

A [Pujols] can make you dizzy, like you been drinking Jack and Coke all morning.

Rany on the Royals: Are the Royals in the Wrong League?

I thought this was going to about the Royals possible joining the Pacific Coast League.

The fact is that with tonight’s convincing win against the Diamondbacks, the Royals are now 47-32 against NL teams since the start of the 2005 season, a .595 winning percentage, while playing just 244-388 (.386) against AL teams in that span.  The odds that a team with a “true” winning percentage of .386 would actually win 47 out of 79 games is .00014, or about one in seven thousand. And while the Royals are probably the most dramatic example of AL teams beating up on NL competition, they are far from the only ones....

Looking to the future, while it’s possible and maybe even likely that the AL will maintain its dominance, from the Royals’ standpoint the question of which league is superior is a lesser concern than which division is superior. While a wild-card entry to the postseason is certainly nice – and a more likely outcome in the Yankee and Red Sox-free National League – the Royals’ best hope for a playoff spot is to win their division. Aside from the fact that the NL Central is the only division in baseball with six teams, there’s an even more compelling reason to think that going forward, the Royals will be better off staying in the AL Central.

AJC: Former Brave Farnsworth bitten by his bulldog

wrong hand, though…

Kansas City Royals right-handed reliever Kyle Farnsworth had his left index finger bandaged Tuesday after being bitten by one of his two bulldogs.

Farnsworth received four stitches from the bite after breaking up a fight between the two bulldogs on Tuesday morning.

The wound was in Farnsworth’s non-pitching hand.

“He’s got stitches in his left hand,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said. “He didn’t get hurt playing ball. He got hurt at home Monday.”

Rany on the Royals : The Five Stages of Being a Royals Fan, Using Only Blog Quotes.

Stage 4: Depression

“I have no idea if the Royals are going to turn things around, whether they’ll get back to .500 this year, whether they’ll contend again in 2009. On paper, there’s no obvious reason why the Royals can’t reverse course. But I know that the Royals aren’t going to win a damn thing so long as they’ve got a GM who isn’t willing to cut losses on a contract that was a mistake the moment it was signed, and a manager who doesn’t understand that just because you have a pitcher on your roster doesn’t mean you have to use him in tight situations.”

Seeing Seagulls by the Lakeshore*

*Alternate headline: I ran. I ran so far away. Couldn’t get away.

Joe Poz does not disappoint.

The Royals lost when a ball hit a seagull. And it just adds to the list of remarkable things I have had the chance to witness since arriving in Kansas City thirteen years ago.

Greinke looks for bounce-back outing against Indians

“Last time,” he said, “I think was mainly a case of just me being stupid again. I thought (the Blue Jays) were struggling because I saw their win-loss record wasn’t that good. They were losing as much as us over the past couple of weeks, it seemed, whenever I checked the paper.

“I watched a game where the guy was just throwing away, and they were getting themselves out. So I thought, `This will be easy. That’s all I’m going to do today, too.’ And, obviously, I should pitch how I pitch and not change my approach.”

Mental Floss: Non-Streaking Fans Who Stormed the Field of Play

What, no Morganna?  Nolan Ryan’s encounter with her, “Hurry, they’re [security] right behind you!” would be the funniest moment in his career if it weren’t for a Chicago resident who charged him with more than kisses on his mind.  Speaking of White Sox…

4. The Ligue Family

Not every pair of field-chargers can be as affable as Gaston and Courtney, though. Take, for instance, William Ligue, Jr., and his 14-year-old son, Michael. During a 2002 White Sox-Royals game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, the duo stormed the field and viciously beat Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa before being intercepted by security. Despite giving Gamboa such a ferocious throttling that he lost part of his hearing, neither Ligue saw any jail time after being charged with multiple counts of aggravated battery and mob action. Instead they got probation for the attack. Of course, when you’re as classy as the Ligues, you’re going to end up in prison at some point. Ligue received a 57-month sentence in 2006 for breaking into a car.

Posnanski: Frankie and Rany

Posnanski takes issue with Rany suggesting the Royals trade for Jeff Franceour. But Joe, if OBA is such an important stat, why don’t they put it on the score board?

Now, remember: You don’t know this guy’s name. He has an OPS+ of 69. His slugging percentage is lower than Juan Pierre’s. He’s also exceedingly slow — he has stolen two bases the last two years (been thrown out twice too), and the Bill James base-running numbers show him to be a minus-six base runner already this year. He does not play a premium defensive position. He has a reputation as a good defensive outfielder — even won a Gold Glove one year — but the Dewan rating system had him as the 30th best right fielder in baseball last year, and the UZR/150 — which ranks how many runs above average a player is over 150 games — shows him to be below average this year.

Now, I’m asking you: Would you TRADE for this guy? Forget the name, forget the Sports Illustrated cover, forget the fact that he’s a competitor (and I have no doubt that he is a competitor), forget all that. Would you trade for THIS GUY?

Or would you, I don’t know, wait until he gets released?*

*I’m thinking again about the Jake Johansen line regarding the problem with negotiating at yard sales. You say: “Look, you either pay my price now … or you’ll have to fish this out of the garbage later.”

KCStar.com: Mellinger: More bad defense, this time with some telling numbers

I never would have guessed this is how Billy Butler would develop into a useful major leaguer.

John Dewan was nice enough to send along the team totals for Plus/Minus and Team Runs Saved, and it’s pretty telling. This e-mail came through yesterday, so my assumption is that all of these numbers are through Sunday’s games.

...

The Royals are 27th in Team Runs Saved (-19), a true team effort* since they’re above average only at first base (+5), left field (+2) and center field (+4).

Per the post, that’s 52 runs worse than league co-leaders Texas and Toronto.

NBC Sports/Pouliot: Five managers on the hot seat

5. Bud Black (Padres) - Truly a pleasant surprise, San Diego is just four games under .500 despite possessing what looked like baseball’s weakest collection of talent at the beginning of the year. Only the Nationals and Orioles have worse run differentials than the Padres, who have scored 221 runs and given up 271. That Black has coaxed the team to a 26-30 record is quite an achievement. Still, Black is managing a team that is expected to eventually have a new owner in Jeff Moorad. CEO Sandy Alderson is gone, and it seems likely that more changes will come after the year. Black will likely survive the season, but if the Padres opt to go in a different direction at GM over the winter, then they may bring in a new manager as well.

Others - Fredi Gonzalez has my vote for baseball’s worst manager, but the Marlins won’t want to have to pay two managers at once again. … Jerry Manuel’s Mets are playing better lately, so he should be safe unless his mouth gets him in trouble. … A’s manager Bob Geren has plenty of support from good friend Billy Beane and can’t be blamed for assembling baseball’s most injury-prone team.

KCStar: Moore says current roster mix capable of pulling Royals out of their slide

TORONTO | Royals general manager Dayton Moore skipped out of the club’s draft preparations this weekend to journey north of the border for a first-hand look at his struggling club.

His conclusion: There is no need for major changes. The Royals, as bad as things are right now, have no problems that can’t be fixed if the club’s current players begin to “perform at their accustomed level.”

Jazayerli: Radical Situations Call For Radical Solutions

I think the Royals should trade for Jeff Francoeur.

Yeah, that Jeff Francoeur. The one that’s become the bane of Atlanta Braves fans and the laughingstock of baseball.

Some players get called “underrated” so much that they become overrated in the process. And for some, the opposite occurs: they get labeled overrated, and that label sticks to them so tightly that the pendulum swings too far the other way.

Once upon a time, the Braves had a right fielder who, like Francoeur, met with immediate acclaim, stepping right into the lineup in mid-season and hitting .281/.304/.459 in 98 games, garnering a few Rookie of the Year votes. Like Francoeur, he was young (22) and considered an all-around talent despite the lack of speed (just one stolen base as a rookie). And like Francoeur, he swung at everything. He walked just eight times all season.

This right fielder struggled terribly the next two seasons, largely because opposing pitchers learned to exploit his impatience at the plate. In his sophomore season, he walked just 17 times in 75 games; in his third year he regressed even more, drawing just 11 walks in 60 games. He hit .235/.277/.354 combined.

The wrinkle is this: after his rookie season, this right fielder was traded, a trade that looked brilliant for the Braves when he struggled over the next two years. The team that traded for him looked like a bunch of morons.

That team was the Kansas City Royals. That player was Jermaine Dye.

Everything that has been written about Jeff Francoeur over the last year could have been written about Dye. I know, because I was the one writing about Dye 12 years ago. The comment I wrote about Dye in the 1999 Baseball Prospectus ended with the line, “His window of opportunity is just about closed.” Yeah, I missed a little with that one. Dye hit .294/.354/.526 for the Royals that year. He also drew 58 walks. Ten years later, he’s still hitting.

Maybe Francoeur learns the strike zone and turns into Dye. If he doesn’t, he still could carve out a career as an overrated but still useful RBI guy, a la Joe Carter. Carter is one of the most overrated baseball players of my lifetime, but he wasn’t a bad player. You could win a world championship with him. Legend has it that he even had a big role to play in one.

Bottom line is this: the rumor du jour is that the Boston Red Sox are interested in Francoeur. Let me repeat that: THE BOSTON RED SOX ARE INTERESTED IN FRANCOEUR. If that isn’t a big flashing neon sign that the public opinion of Francoeur has shifted to the point where he’s now an underpriced commodity, I don’t know what is.

KCStar: Royals notebook: Hochevar’s return marks end of four-man rotation

The Royals will end nearly two weeks of employing a four-man rotation this afternoon by recalling right-hander Luke Hochevar from Class AAA Omaha for their 12:07 p.m. game against the Blue Jays.

Manager Trey Hillman confirmed Hochevar as today’s starter after Friday’s 9-3 loss to Toronto at the Rogers Centre. The move was expected after the Royals limited Hochevar to just 33 pitches Tuesday in his last minor-league start.

It remains uncertain how the club will clear roster space for Hochevar. General manager Dayton Moore joined the traveling party prior to Friday’s game with plans to discuss that decision with Hillman and other staff members.

The likeliest move, barring an injury, would be to option reliever Roman Colon to Omaha, but several veteran relievers have pitched poorly and could be at risk.

Mellinger: The Royals are very bad right now. But this is not 2004

There are a lot of cool things about following the Royals.

Zack Greinke pitches once every five days, for instance. Joakim Soria often finishes saves with a 62 mph curveball that makes big league hitters look drunk. It’s always fun to see just how many cans of chaw Mike Jacobs can fit into his mouth.

George Brett is good for a funny, R-rated rant every so often. Trey Hillman uses weird terms like “barrel awareness.” You never know when Jose Guillen will say something colorful.

baltimoresun.com - Catching Up With … ex-Oriole Jim Gentile

The Oriole hitter with the hurricane swing turns 75 on Wednesday.

Happy birthday, Diamond Jim. What’s the best gift for someone your age?

“To live to be 76,” Jim Gentile said.

In the early 1960s, he was Baltimore’s tempestuous slugger, a fiery first baseman with a whip-like cut that battered the air and roused the crowds, contact or no. Watching Gentile flail was as entertaining as seeing his home runs soar out of Memorial Stadium. Strikeouts begat tantrums, broken bats, smashed water coolers and ejections. But if Gentile’s ire prepared the city for the coming of Earl Weaver, his muscle lay the groundwork for Frank Robinson’s arrival.

Manley: Greinke: How’s this for HOF credentials?

Z for Zackary...the explosion continues.

Dead Ball vs Live Blood

The other thing that is interesting in looking at these 20 pitchers is that 9 of the 20 are in the first 20 years of the century. It is also true that 9 of the 20 are in the last 20 years. For the 70 years in between, only two pitchers are on this list – Koufax (1963) and Seaver (1971). What’s the explanation?

Well, of course, the “dead ball era” (up to around 1920) covers nine of these. And, the 1960’s - early 70’s were pitcher-dominated as well. So, that explains 11 of the 20 on this list. But, what about the nine in the last 20 seasons?

I call that the “Iive blood era”. Who knows who started taking what and when and how much it improved their performance? Because I don’t know and neither do you, I have no choice except to paint a broad brush over the entire group. It’s doubtful if Saberhagen, as early as 1989, had anything going, but after that you have this inexplicable bunch of historically great pitching performances - despite it being during an era when balls were flying out of the park left and right. If anyone wants to believe that is coincidence or “training”, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Back to Greinke

In any event, those are the stats. Based on ERA, SO/BB ratio and HR’s, Greinke could slip a lot the rest of the season and he still would make it on this list of 20. In fact, average innings pitched being equal, he could go the rest of the season with an ERA of 2.81, 1.1 HR/G and SO/BB ratio of only 3.3 and he would still be in this group of 20 – make that 21.

KC Star: Posnanski: Greinke has too many pitches to get hit

Someone asked Tigers manager Jim Leyland what impressed him most about Greinke. Leyland rattled off a bunch of things: Greinke’s “put-away slider,” (as in “puts away hitters”), his curveball which he can throw for strikes anytime, his fastball which he can adjust like a digital thermometer (sometimes throwing 91 mph, sometimes throwing 97), his mesmerizing change-up, his coolness on the mound and his put-away slider (Leyland said it twice)....

Numbers: Zack Greinke has now gone 14 consecutive starts without giving up a home run. That’s a Royals record.

Numbers: Zack Greinke has now started a season with 10 consecutive starts of giving up two runs or less. That, too, is a Royals record, and it’s two shy of the big league record.

Numbers: Zack Greinke now has struck out 81, walked 12, and allowed a total of 67 base runners in 75 innings pitched.

AJC:  Atlanta Braves with David O’Brien Braves look for outfield fix

San Francisco — When Jeff Francoeur and Jordan Schafer combined for an 0-for-8, six-strikeout performance in Monday’s loss to the Giants, it underscored the Braves’ serious need to add an outfield bat between now and the July 31 trade deadline, and ideally a lot closer to now than to July 31.
Yes, when your right fielder is hitting .259 with a .647 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS), and your center fielder is hitting .205 with a .625 OPS, well, it’s a damn good thing that your left fielder is piling up big power numbers.

To me, because Francoeur is at the middle of this problem/discussion, it always comes back to Kansas City and Dayton Moore. In other words, the Royals have a GM who was the Braves’ farm director when the so-called Baby Braves were signed and developed, and who is friends with Francoeur and still probably thinks more highly of Francoeur and his “upside” than any other baseball official on any team.
And if the Braves could get Moore to act, then perhaps they could actually get the Royals to part with something of valuable and pay the remainder of Francoeur’s $3.375 million contract this season.
But then, of course, you run into the problem of getting back someone to play RF, or needing to have another deal in place for a RF. Who are the Royals going to give up who can play RF and be an upgrade over Francoeur?

Urban Prankster: Guy Fieri Impostor Interviewed on Fox During Royals Game

Via kansascity.com:

Not to take away from Zack Greinke’s masterful shutout, but a Guy Fieri imposter was interviewed on-air last night during Fox Sports Net’s broadcast of the Royals game.

Guy Fieri, for those who don’t know, is the Food Network host of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” He travels the country visiting these places. He has been to Kansas City before.

A call to PR person Rebecca Brooks confirmed it: It wasn’t Guy!

The imposter gave interviewer Joel Goldberg’s questions short, rude, one-word answers. He was acting like he wanted no part of the interview. He took a phone call during the interview. It was no doubt from his buddy Cletus, who said something like “hey, Buford, I see you on TV!”

The Food Network has video, as well.

DEADSPIN: Royals Fans Turn Children’s Playground Into Thunderdome

Two couples started an all-out brawl at a Kansas City Royals game on Sunday after a woman walked in front another woman as she was taking a picture, a breech of etiquette that clearly deserves a head stomping. If a few kids got hurt along the way, that’s just business.

According to police, everyone was enjoying a lovely day in Kauffman Stadium’s outfield fun zone until Ronika Brooks walked in front of Erin Mela as Mela was taking a picture of her kid. Mela allegedly swore at her (Brooks says Mela directed a racial slur at her) then Mela’s husband got involved, then three men may have jumped him, then he may have spit in Brooks’ face ... then some kids got knocked over, so their parents joined in, and then at one point Erin Mela was definitely on the ground getting kicked in the head. Let’s play two!

It also seems that security was a bit lax on the response.

“It was horrible,” said Mike Worley of Olathe, who said T-shirt-wearing stadium staff failed to stem the violence and told him to “mind my own business” when he tried to point out participants.

Royals officials said that their security office was notified of a disturbance in the new outfield experience area at 3:45 p.m. Two minutes later the call was updated to a fight in progress. The first police officers arrived at 3:49 p.m....

“It was beyond a brawl. It started out as four people, and then as kids were getting toppled, those parents came in, the women were fighting,” Phipps said. “The saddest scene was a girl wrapped around mom’s waist and saying, ‘Please don’t,’ and she’s throwing punches.”

Deadspin has the links. Obviously. I normally would use the actual article, but that title makes me want to laugh.

Royals rally against Wood for 6-5 victory

“I went with fastballs. The first guy (Jacobs) saw nine pitches. He’s a low ball hitter, caught one down in the zone. The second guy (Teahen), same thing out over the plate. The rest of it happened pretty quick. I didn’t have a second pitch today and scuffling to find an off-speed pitch. It’s tough for Lee to come out and pitch that way again and for us not to pick him up again. Obviously, we need to win every game we get a chance to win and I didn’t help that today.”

The last-place Indians have lost four straight.

“It just didn’t work out for us,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said.

Eric Wedge, Master of Understatement.