Kansas City Royals go 2-1 up against New York Yankees

James Sheilds

Ryan and his shirt were trying to go 10-0 today when James Shields pitches. Sadly, Ryan and his shirt had to work today. Luckily, Ryan was wearing his shirt under his uniform, and we still managed to escape with a win.

The Yankees were getting some good wood on Shields in the first. Brett Gardner led off the first with a single. Derek Jeter hit a smash to his counterpart, Alcides Escobar, who made a beautiful diving play to throw out the Yankee Captain. Jacoby Ellsbury, who has been a particularly tough out for the Royals, grounded out to James Shields. The Yankees stranded two in the first, but in doing so, they raised Shields’ pitch count to above 20.

Our top of the lineup continues to be very unproductive. Nori Aoki led off the game with a walk, which is what a good leadoff hitter should do. Omar Infante, who is in an 0-18 coming into the game, grounded into a fielders choice. Hosmer promptly got Hiroki Kuroda out of any potential trouble that Kuroda could have gotten in with another double play.

I was looking for some “Shields Shirt Magic” for Shields to get out of the second inning. “Big Game” James loaded the bases with no outs which sent me into a panic. I closed my eyes, curled up into a ball. and said, “Come on, Shirt. Do your thing.” Two strikeouts and a fielders choice later, Royals fans could breathe easy as Shields escaped another jam.

Our bottom of the order would come through for us again. With two straight outs, Salvador Perez singled to right, Lorenzo Cain drove a double to center, Mike Moustakas blooped a single to left, and Alcides Escobar hit an infield single. The Royals are the kings of two-out rallies, and this time they scored two runs off of it. Looks like “Shields Shirt Magic” was happening for the offense too.

Jacoby Ellsbury continues to give the Royals fits, just like he always has. Other than that, things were very calm in the third inning for both the Royals and Yanks. Innings three through five were very bland, and not much happened. The Yankees finally scored their first run in the 6th inning when Yangervis Solarte scored on a pass ball by Salvy Perez and an Ichiro Suzuki groundout. Shields ended the day with 8 strikeouts, no earned runs in 6.0 innings, making that his first quality start in three starts.

In the seventh inning, it would seem, at least to me anyway, that Ryan’s shirt magic would run out when Brett Gardner hit a one out triple off of Aaron Crow. There was still plenty of shirt magic to go around when Crow wiggled out of a jam, a la James Shields.

With the back of our bullpen, as rock-solid as it always is, the 8th and 9th innings are no contest for the Royals. Wade Davis recorded his 500th career strikeout, and Greg Holland recorded his 18th save of the year.

All in all, there was plenty of Ryan’s shirt magic to go around. Now if only I can convince him to buy a magic shirt for our entire pitching staff, then we’ll be in business.