Dugout Digest - keep on rollin'

Something has happened with the Kansas City Royals. The butt of a lot of jokes through the first two months of this season, Kansas City is 8-3 in June and is now just 5.5 games out of first place in the AL Central. They rallied late to beat the Tigers last night, Detroit is still playing pretty good baseball, so Kansas City hasn't picked up a ton of ground, but after winning their last three series, the Royals aren't a joke right now.

PIC OF THE DAY

Tom Wilhelmsen, and the agony of an awful appearance. (Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Royals 3, Tigers 2 (ten innings). This game is the rare double feature in the opening, and the GOTN section. Justin Verlander dominated the Royals over sevne innings and left the game to the bullpen to finish the job…whoops. Drew Smyly threw an easy eighth, but allowed a leadoff single to Eric Hosmer in the ninth. Exit Smyly, enter Valverde. Detroit's closer got the first two outs before allowing a game-tying two-run homer to Lorenzo Cain to blow the win for Verlander. In the tenth, Greg Holland threw a shutdown inning for the Royals, and Kansas City won by playing station to station baseball in the bottom of the inning: Miguel Tejada singled, move up a base on each fo the next two outs, and scored the winning run on a walkoff single by Hosmer.

Pitching Lines of the Night: Jeremy Bonderman dominated the Astros before Tom Wilhelmsen imploded in Seattle's 6-1 loss, allowing three hits in eight scoreless innings, walking two and striking out five. He was countered by Jordan Lyles, who gave up three hits in seven shutout frames, walking two and striking out ten. Verlander's final stat line in that Tigers loss to the Royals included seven scoreless innings, three hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Mike Leake ran roughshod over the Cubs in a 2-1 Reds win, allowing one run on three hits in eight innings, striking out six and walking one. Alfredo Figaro gave the Brewers a rare great start in their 10-1 thrashing of the Marlins, giving up three hits over seven shutout innings, walking none and striking out four.

Hitting Lines of the Night: In that Milwaukee romp in Miami, Carlos Gomez went 4/5 with three runs, three RBI, and two triples. Brandon Moss led the A's to a 5-2 win over the Yankees, going 2/4 with two homers and three RBI. Clete Thomas was elite in the Twins' 4-3 win over the Phillies, putting together a perfect 4/4 day with one run, two RBI, and two doubles. Albert Pujols performed well for the Angels in their 9-5 win in Baltimore, going 3/5 with two RBI, a double, and a homer. Finally, there's the red hot Starling Marte of the Pirates, helping Pittsburgh to a 12-8 win over the Giants. Marte went 4/5 with four runs and two steals in the victory.

Other Games: The Padres beat the Braves 5-3. The Red Sox held on to beat the Rays 2-1. The Indians beat the Rangers 5-2. The Mets defeated Shelby Miller and the Cardinals 5-1. The Nationals triumphed 5-1 over the Rockies behind the arm of…Ross Ohlendorf!? The Diamondbacks beat the Dodgers 8-6 in 12 innings. The White Sox and Blue Jays fell victim to Mother Nature.

Today's Games: Adam Wainwright takes on Matt Harvey at Citi Field, and I hope the rain doesn't interfere. Mat Latos takes on Jeff Samardzija at Wrigley. Hiroki Kuroda and Jarrod Parker will duel in Oakland. Kevin Gausman starts for the Orioles against the Red Sox. Matt Cain starts in Pittsburgh against the returning Charlie Morton. Yu Darvish and the Rangers host the Blue Jays. Cliff Lee starts for the Phillies in Minnesota.

National TV: Red Sox-Orioles (7 PM, MLB Network), Royals-Rays (7 PM, MLB Network)

Enjoy your day of baseball, everyone.

After last night's 2-0 win over the Astros, the Pittsburgh Pirates have…increased their lead in the NL Central. They're now two up on the Reds, and 2.5 up on the Cardinals. Pittsburgh's 46-36 record is the second best in the National League, a hair above the NL West-leading Dodgers. The Pirates run differential is within spitting distance of some of the top teams in the league, and in June and what little we've played of July so far, the Pirates are a +49 and ten games above .500. The best team in Pennsylvania, for the first time in forever, isn't in the eastern part of the state. It's in the west, and the Pirates are showing no signs of slowing down.

Game of the Night: Mets 6, Phillies 5. In three months, looking back upon the 2012 Phillies season, this game might be looked at as the turning point. Philadelphia took a 5-4 lead into the ninth, looking for a series win against their NL East rivals. They had gotten five runs off of Mets ace RA Dickey, even if most of those runs came through the nickel and dime variety. Highly paid closer Jonathan Papelbon was on the mound. The win looks like a lock. Then…disaster. Ike Davis led the inning off with a double, and was sacrificed to third. Kirk Nieuwenhuis struck out, and the Mets needed a hit rather than a fly ball to tie the game. Pinch hitter Jordany Valdespin got plunked, and Ruben Tejada walked to load the bases for Daniel Murphy, who lined one up the middle that went off Papelbon's leg. The ball trickled away, the Phillies got no outs, and the game was tied. That brought up the team's MVP this year, David Wright, who fisted a blooper into right field that Hunter Pence couldn't come up with. Mets win 6-5, and the Phillies got another heartbreaking loss.

Pitching Lines of the Night: In the Pirates' 2-0 win over the Astros to complete the sweep, Jeff Karstens of all people was insanely good. He threw eight shutout innings, allowing four hits and walking one, striking out eight Astros hitters. When Karstens is shutting teams down…something's going right for your team. White Sox rookie Jose Quintana continued his unreal season in Chicago's 2-1 win over Texas to complete a sweep over the AL West leaders, allowing one run on two hits in eight innings, walking one and striking out eight. Mark Buerhle shut down the Brewers in Miami's 4-0 win, going 7 2/3 shutout innings and allowing six hits, no walks, and striking out eight. Mat Latos returned to San Diego, but his former team got the 2-1 win. It wasn't Latos's fault though, as he threw seven shutout innings and allowed four hits, two walks, and struck out eight.

Hitting Lines of the Night: On a night dominated by pitching, there were some good hitting performances as well. Toronto catcher JP Arencibia went 2/4 with three RBI and a pair of homers in the Blue Jays' 9-6 loss to the Royals. In that big win over the Phillies, David Wright of the Mets went 3/5 with four RBI and a homer to continue his unreal year. Jimmy Rollins was great for the Phillies too, giong 3/3 with a run, two RBI, two walks, a double, and a triple.

Other Games: The Tigers beat the Twins 7-3 thanks to a late Prince Fielder homer. The Nationals edged the Giants 6-A5 on a walk-off…fielders choice? The Indians beat the Rays 3-1 thanks to three solo homers and a great start from Josh Tomlin. The Braves hit four homers in a 7-3 win over the Cubs. The Angels overcame a 7-3 deficit and beat the Orioles 9-7. The Cardinals beat the scuffling Rockies 6-2. The Dodgers beat the free-falling Diamondbacks 4-1.

Today's Games: Our last series before the All-Star Break. Awwwwww. Drew Pomeranz and the Rockies take on Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals in DC…pretty solid young pitching matchup there. Tim Hudson and the Braves travel to Philly, and look to put another nail in their coffin this weekend. Hiroki Kuroda takes on Josh Beckett at Fenway on another Yankees-Red Sox weekend. Travis Wood and the Cubs take on Johan Santana and the Mets in New York. All-Star snub Jake Peavy and the White Sox host the Blue Jays. CJ Wilson and the Angels host the Orioles. Clayton Kershaw makes his final start before the break against the Diamondbacks.

Enjoy your day of baseball, everyone.

Dugout Digest – keep on rollin’

About Joe Lucia

Dugout Digest – keep on rollin’….

About Joe Lucia