Man Alive Another Five

The Royals have won five in a row again and other than a hiccup against the San Francisco Giants, they would have an 11 game win streak. They will take another five game win streak though. Luke Hochevar continued his somewhat up and down rookie year, somewhat to be expected in MLB. This probably was the best start of his career. He went a career high 8 innings and was as strong if not stronger when he left the game as when he started the game. It was not a Greg Maddux vintage performance when he would have a complete game and have 80 pitches, but in this day and age 84 pitches going into the 8th inning is excellent. What may have been the most impressive was, through no fault of his own Hochevar did not have a smooth 8th inning. With one out in the 8th and with a two run lead, on a fairly routine grounder, Mike Aviles was a bit too enthusiastic and he threw too high to first and after a great leap to catch, Ross Gload could not make a sweep tag. With the tying run at the plate, and Matt Holliday looking to tie the game with his third homerun of the series, on an attempted steal by Spillborgh, Johhn Buck in a big situation threw out his first runner of the year. He is now 1 for 24 in that department.
After the caught stealing, Hochevar walked Holliday and then Hochevar induced a routine grounder by Helton to get out the inning.

More solid play lead the way for the Royals as the “Mexecutioner” came out of the pen and did what he does. 15 pitches, most were strikes, two strikeouts and a weak grounder to second.

Just like that the Royals have won 10-11 and set up nicely to enjoy their day off on Thursday before beginning part deux of the I-70 series, the Royals are playing their best baseball in a long time. They are out of the bottom of the American League Central (take that Indians) and their number one pick and the number one pick in the draft two years ago, pitched like it. Yes, the Royals and their fans are feeling pretty good-after a three game sweep of the Rockies as are their players and they all deserve it.