Games » Chicago White Sox
Sep15The killer instinct
Lee Judge
The Kansas City Star
Mike Moustakas says that even though most everyone agrees that the Royals are steadily getting better, they still need to find the ability to finish off teams in close games, score tack-on runs and win games when they get out to an early lead.
Tonight, the Royals showed that “killer instinct”, getting ahead on Mark Buehrle quickly and continuing to tack on runs throughout the night. It was one of the best games I’ve seen all year, and the team really looked strong.
Francis and the 1st
Jeff Francis often struggles in the 1st inning, and that has come to be the gauge for judging Francis’ performance – how quickly and cleanly he can get through the first. Tonight, he faced the Sox’s best hitter, Paul Konerko, with a runner on first base and one down – if something bad was going to happen, this would probably be it.
Francis came down and in on the first two pitches, which Konerko ripped foul, then went up and away. He missed twice, pushing the count to 2-2, and then placed a nice low changeup right on the outside corner to get Konerko to ground into a double play. Jeff got through the first inning and never looked back.
That is, until the 6th
Francis’ stuff looked good all night and despite a few singles from A.J. Pierzynski and a run scored on a sac fly in the 3rd, he was cruising. He largely stuck to a nice combination of low changeups and high moving fastballs that got him a lot of groundouts and popups. Then he hit the sixth inning.
Konerko came up and hit a single, then Rios, then Pierzynski. Each was hit on a breaking pitch that stayed up and out over the plate, and if it wasn’t for Konerko clogging up the basepaths, Francis easily could have given up his two run lead right there.
Francis was now in trouble, with no outs and the bases loaded, facing Dayan Viciedo at the plate. He couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and then, what do you know – he left an 83-mph 4-seamer right over the heart of the plate. Fortunately for Jeff, Viciedo was set to take and watched it go right by him. In a game this close and with Konerko on third, Viciedo probably should have swung at the first pitch that looked like it had some outfield potential. But he didn’t and instead flew out to Alex two pitches later, setting up two more flyouts to get Francis out of the inning with his lead intact.
Manager Ned Yost put Louis Coleman in for the 7th and 8th and let Aaron Crow close out the game, and the Royals got a good, well-deserved win.
Speaking of which: Frenchy?
On the one-out sac fly by Tyler Flowers to bring Konerko home in the 6th, Jeff Francoeur caught the ball in right and threw behind Konerko to try to get Rios at third, which didn’t work. I know it’s the smart move to throw behind the lead runner and keep everyone else from advancing, but in a two-run game, and with the combination of Frenchy’s throwing strength and Konerko’s lack of speed coming off third, I was surprised to not see him get in his “Frenchy Overdrive” mode and fire off a strike towards home. It ended up not really mattering, and I’m not saying he made a mistake at all, but I will ask him what he saw to make him go to third instead of home when I am back in town on Saturday.
Hot Bats
The Royals have had a major surge in offense in their current five-game winning streak, and tonight was no exception. Billy absolutely blasted his three-run homer in the bottom of the 6th that tore this game wide open, and Melky did his usual Superman thing and went 4 for 5, just a triple shy of hitting for the cycle. But one of the Royals’ hottest bats in this winning streak is that of Salvador Perez, who hit a nice single, a freak triple and a great double in the third inning. The 2-1 pitch from Buehrle was inside but hittable, and Perez got the bat head around it, driving it deep into the left center gap.
If Perez can keep improving along with Moustakas and Escobar, suddenly the bottom three of the order doesn’t look too shabby at all.
Why Can’t Yamaico Help Me Out?
Well, I kept attempting to prove a point to myself that Yamaico Navarro was making some key mistakes at the plate. In the bottom of the 5th, he came up with two outs, runners on first and second. He worked to a 3-0 count against Buehrle, who at the time was losing 3-1 and was looking like the game was slipping away from him. Buehrle threw a batting practice fastball right down the middle, and Yamaico watched it go by. I wanted to blast him for not ripping the cover off a ball that everyone in the stadium knew would be coming right over the plate. Next pitch, though, he hit a nice single to left and drove Hosmer in on Juan Pierre’s weak arm. Same thing happened in the 7th – he took a bad hack at a 3-1 pitch that was very hittable, but came back on the next pitch and hit a sac fly to drive in Perez after his triple.
In a backward way, Yamaico taught me something useful to remember for both fans and media – DON’T decide what happens in the game until you have WATCHED THE WHOLE GAME. I was ready to say that Yamaico didn’t look very developed at the plate and was making fundamental mistakes that would shine through in his game eventually. But both times he proved me wrong. Makes me wonder if, I don’t know, he knows more about the game than I do?
Submitted by Paul Judge
Gordo’s hat
If you get into the stadium in time to see any of the Royals batting practice, you might notice that Alex Gordon is wearing a different hat than everyone else. I’ve written about this before, but this is the compromise Alex, Mitch Maier and Jeff Francoeur decided on.
Alex has been wearing the same hat since opening day (he’s having a good year and can’t change anything) and his hat’s disgusting. It smells so bad Frenchy is threatening to move his locker if Alex doesn’t do something about it. Gordo agreed to wear a different hat during BP so he wouldn’t add even more sweat to his game hat. I don’t know what you do with this information, but if you notice he’s the only one with a different hat, now you know why.
Submitted by Lee Judge
Butler
Navarro
Francis
I thought one of the main keys tonight was answering their runs with runs of our own in the bottom half of innings. Both times they scored, it brought them within one, but we were able to get it back the first time, and with interest the second time.
Beating the White Sox is always good for the soul.
Lee, just curious about your thoughts on the recent tendency for Eddie Rodriguez to hold runners at third with 2 outs and the bottom of the order coming up. Earlier in the season, we were routinely running and forcing the other teams to make perfect throws to save a run in these situations. Do you think this is a directive from Yost, or has Eddie had a change of approach?
Curtis: I think of that as a reverse shutdown inning. When a pitcher is given runs it's important to shutdown the other team in the next half inning. It sends a message: not tonight.
I think it works the other way as well: you score runs, so do we. I've heard it described as 'creating the expectation of defeat.'
And you're right about the White Sox.
Don: I hadn't noticed that. It doesn't mean it isn't happening, it just means I hadn't noticed.
One possible explanation is that the bottom of the order is hitting better. If you've got a runner coming into third and the guy on deck can't hit, sometimes you send him and hope for a bad throw knowing the runner will be out if the throw is good.
If the guys in the bottom third are swinging well, you might be more inclined to put up the stop sign and count on them to drive in the run.
It was interesting to hear Ned talk in the post game show about the umpires having to learn to get out of Perez's way when he throws. As usual I had thought I discovered something new and they were aware of it already. Should have known. All in all it was a great game. Was fun to watch the Sox decide not to test our outfield. The fly to Alex was fun, it looked like Alex was ready to throw the runner out and was saying to himself just go ahead and try to run. Almost looked like he was saying please try it.
I also notice that Eddie semed to be holding runners more last night. I think it really does have to do with the fact the lower hitters are producing more.
I've enjoyed this blog all season long. It really helps explain all the intricacies of baseball. More importantly, it has helped keep me interested in the Royals this year and encouraged about the future.
I wonder if you could comment on the base running mistake on Butler's fly ball in the fourth. Did Escobar blow it or did Cabrera?
In the 9th, Frenchy, froom right field tried to throw out Ramirez at first, Ramirez was pretty animated about this, any thoughts??
Two thoughts on Melky's base running. Right before the play Scott asked about, Melky moved up to second on a ball that got just a little bit away from Flowers at the plate. In my opinon, he showed really good judgement on this play, and obviously was very alert to what was happening on the field. He then followed that positive move with a real "rock". It is his responsibility to make sure the base he is going to is really vacant. Esky is focused on the outfielder and the throw, and cannot split his attention to see what Melky is doing. If Melky comes part of the way and the throw goes home, he can make third easily. If the throw is behind him, he can get back or go depending on what he sees. If the throw goes to third, he can easily get back to second and still be in scoring position.
Larry: I don't know what Alex was thinking, but I know that in at least one case Danny Duffy wanted a runner to go on Alex.
Danny said he was thinking, "Go, I could use the help." And in that case Alex did throw out the runner.
Scott: Glad you're enjoying the site. In this case, I actually didn't see the game, which is why my son watched and scored it for me.
He and Frank White agreed with Joel: Melky's got to make sure the preceding runner vacates the base.
If this is wrong I'm sure Doug Sisson will let me know.
Kelli: Some people think throwing the runner out at first is showing him up. Mainly slow runners think this.
I asked Frenchy and Alex if they'd be mad if they got thrown out at first and they said yes, but mad at themselves for not getting down the line faster.
A few thoughts... I too cringed when Navarro left 5 people on after getting outs on his earlier two at bats. And from what I can remember, their RF had a cannon. I think Escobar would have been out. And earlier, I think they held up Gio on the RF too. I was ok with that.