Royals Sweep White Sox

[KCBOOMER]

For the first time since 1979 the Royals have opened the year 3-0. With all the good teams the Royals have had in the past I was surprised to find this out.

Yesterdays keys were ubelievable timely hitting with two outs. All the Royals runs scored after two were out. The biggest at bat might have been in the bottom of the eighth with the Sox leading 6-5. The Royals had two on with two out when Desi Relaford worked Tom Gordon for a walk. Billy Koch came in and gave up a two run single to Ken Harvey and a three run homer to Brent Mayne.

Obviously, the Royals are not better than the White Sox but for a few days KC gets to bask in the glow of success and act like a baseball town. The Royals seem to be playing with great enthusiasm. Pena actually seems to be doing some things that are against his nature. First, he seems to be willing to protect his young pitchers arms but not overworking them. He also has getting looking to work the count a little bit. Some of the guys haven't got the message on this yet (see Angel Berroa) but it is a good sign.

As for the White Sox they have some problems, Now no team is as bad as it looks when its losing but this series showed two glaring problems. First, they just aren't very good defensively. They had four errors yesterday and should have been charged with more. Second the relief pitching looks very weak. Koch, in particular, looked dreadful in his only appearance. His ERA is infinity. Seems like a number of smart guys pointed out last year that the Sox were making a mistake in trading Foulke for Koch. Okay, three games isn't much of a sample, but I think these two problems portend trouble for the SouthSiders.

As for Royals fans, get a grip. When your leading hitter is Brent Mayne you have to suspect you got lucky. Ken Harvey has looked like a very good DH, though. He doesn't elevate the ball when he hits it, but he does hit it hard. Berroa was sensational at shortstop but doesn't look like he is going to hit a lick. MacDougal looks he a closer potential with his 100mph heater, but we will see.

Anyway the Royals have shown enough to make me suspect they might win 72 games this year.