EMK19

#Dickey4game7

Yeah, I think most people have now accepted the chances from here on for what it is. Just hoping for a good performance more than anything, would hate to see us go down without much fight like we did in game 1 or 4.

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Let's just look at it as you committing all the errors for the Jays in advance, get them out of the way so that they play error free today. lol.

It's Estrada, we'll be seeing Navarro and not Martin. Thankfully, that's not much of a loss today the way Martin has been hitting...

The question is whether Sanchez and Osuna would be effective enough out there with their blister/nail issues... but I guess it's not like we have any other choice in the pen for the matter. This is more so the reason why our starters really, really need to come up big and go long as possible the next (hopefully) three games.

Going by percentages I think the starters will have to carry the team more so than the hitters for the next 3 games... as I said earlier I think it's very difficult for any lineup to sustain crooked numbers for 3 straight games... it'd be nice but I'd say we would have better chances with our starters pitching three straight well pitched games, we all know it's well within their capabilities (Estrada/Price/Stro). I'm sure there will be at least one game from the next possible three that will need a lights out, stellar pitching performance from somebody, we'll need to win at least one close low scoring ball game. And if offence does come alive for one or more of those games hopefully it doesn't fall on the day where we don't really need all of those runs.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Even if he's around, one has to wonder if his mental focus/state would be there right now to pitch for us in key playoff situations. Bad roster management IMO. I honestly would have rather picked Jeff Francis over Tepera for the lefty depth, his lefty splits were actually not too bad from what I've heard, plus he has a lot of major league experience at least, so I have no idea why he wasn't given a shot.

I hope AA has learned the lesson here concerning the depth of the roster... He covered most of the areas well at the deadline but he did overlook the depth of LHP's in the pen by having too much faith in Cecil to remain healthy rest of the way and hoping that Loup somehow comes around after a bad start. Of course this current Loup situation isn't anyone's fault but even if he pitched he wouldn't exactly have been reliable to anyone's eyes outside a LOOGY situation anyway. One of Hawkins/Lowe at the deadline should have been a lefty instead... Maybe we should have kept around Phil Coke, lol.

Loup wasn't available due to family issues again.

BTW, Hasn't ALL of our errors/error like plays ended up being driven in so far? Maybe I missed something here and there but from my memory EVERY SINGLE fielding mistake has gone punished by the Royals. Gotta say I've never seen this before, since a team usually gets away with a few over a 4 game spell. Royals have simply been ruthless in being opportunistic, gotta credit them for that. Quite ironic too considering that it was us that had benefitted from those Andrus errors to get into this series in the first place...

A positive I guess one can take out from a loss of a huge margin like this is that after a team comes off a game scoring 10+ runs, they very, very seldomly repeat anything close to that performance in the following game. It happens, but usually teams don't score anything close to that in following games. This is too difficult of a game to hit ridiculously like that 3-4 games in a row. Royals defied the odds yesterday by scoring 14 after they scored 8 the previous night, but I very much doubt they are going to do it three nights in a row... Their hitters are due for a cold spell. I'm glad they got all that out of the system late in the game last night actually, for this reason. Today I see them scoring 4 runs or less at max. Hopefully our batters can do enough to better that.

Well, we can never count this team out from winning 3 straight at any point. They certainly have the talent to do it. It's not in the percentages though of course against a team as good and deep as the Royals, and even if we are able to do so it's going to be a real grind I'm sure. Estrada, Price, and Stro will all need to pitch the game of their lives, they all really need to go 7 deep 2/3 runs or less each and keep us in the ballgame. They've figured out everyone from our pen so they really need to be minimized in use if at all possible. For all of our hitters to suddenly heat up at this time of the year 1-9 is way too much to ask (especially since a lot of those guys seem to be just running on empty at this point stamina wise) but hopefully we can at least be opportunistic when the chances do come up, that's all we can ask of them. More than anything, we can't give them free baserunners anymore through bad errors, Royals have punished us every single time by bringing those in. If there is one bright side, for today's game at least, I've very seldomly seen a team explode for 10+ runs in one game repeat anything close to that performance in the following game; in other words, I think it's about time for their bats to cool down; they're due for a cold spell at this point methinks. Let's just hope that our offence is up for it facing Volquez for the second time. Reversing the 3-1 deficit is a huge task and honestly I'm not expecting it, but I do expect us to show more fight and give us a few more ballgames. At the very least, take the series back to kansas city. That's all I ask. Let's make it a well fought series no matter how it ends up.

At the end of the day this is on Dickey and us not solving Young early enough. We all knew how the lower tier guys in the pen would implode once it got past Hendriks. At least Hendriks left us with something to be hopeful about. Please just burn Ryan Tempura the rest of the way. Save the main three guys to go all in for rest of the games.

Just leave tepera out to dry rest of the way. Save Lowe, Sanchez and Osuna for the next three games.

So this is the great lefty splits of Tepera on display here, huh...? Running scared and throwing it away...

What sticks out to me the most about his time here has been the consistency of solid contact vs him. He's been unbelievably lucky for his numbers during the regular season to actually look respectable. ....aaand here we go again. More of the same. And the Jay killer at the plate.

Interesting, Hawkins has changed his set position, his arm is close to his body now. Must have been tipping off pitches like how Cecil used to.

I hope this performance from Hendriks has earned some trust from Gibby as the late inning choice here on forth, unfortunately though it might end up being too late, unless we get it to game 7.

3 runs is still well within reach for this offence, no matter how tough their pen is. We already got to their pen once during the regular season IIRC, it's just a matter if keeping it at the 3 run margin here on...

Hendriks has been awesome. A gutsy outing there to put a stop to their offence and give us a chance.

Im starting to think we may actually do better vs Hochevar at this pace. This has been Gallardo-level frustrating...

Martin's been such a disappointment with his bat this series... Almost glad we have Navarro playing by default tm...

The replay makes it very hard for people to slide feet first into a base lol... Very hard not to bounce up from the momentum.

I honestly think that Tepera won't get used period in any normal circumstances at all. unless it gets real deep into extra innings or if it becomes a complete disaster of a blowout, Gibby likely won't have enough confidence to use him. Really don't understand his selection still, I think we would have been better off with another bench piece if Tepera wasn't going to be used in any meaningful way anyway.