By the Ribbie Reporter - Two box scores in one day

Mike Aviles made his major league debut for the Royals Thursday. In true Kansas City fashion, he went 0-3. But what makes Mr. Aviles really special is that he managed to appear in two box scores today. Wednesday afternoon, the Omaha Royals, KC's AAA affiliate, had a game suspended because of a hydrochloric acid leak.[1] Aviles started that game for the O-Royals. But Thursday morning he was called up and reported to Kauffman Stadium for his debut. Thursday afternoon, the acid cloud had cleared and the O-Royals finished their game, using, one presumes, a new shortstop.
So there you have it… Mike Aviles played in two games for two teams on the same day. Now if only he hits as well in the majors as he did in AAA.

In other news the Royals are awful again
Since 2006, the Royals have had FOUR – I repeat FOUR – losing streaks that were 11 games or longer. The rest of the MLB has had two such streaks during that time. [2] The Royals are currently mired in one of these streaks. So yeah, it’s become something of an art form in Kansas City.
They were no-hit by Jon Lester. They were mocked by Charles Barkley. They let Justin Masterson, a AA call-up, beat them easily. They let Bartolo Colon, who’s twice the man he used to be (and I mean that literally) beat them in his first start of the year. And on Thursday night they handed Kevin Slowey[3] his first complete game in the majors. Only a pair of 9th inning doubles prevented a shutout.
The low point probably came during Wednesday’s 9-8 loss when – after Zach Greinke pitched eight innings and left with an 8-3 lead, two relievers coughed it all back up in the 9th. Ramon Ramirez surrounded a single with two strikeouts. But then three more singles chased him from the game and brought on Joel Peralta. He served up three straight balls to Craig Monroe. (for the love of [name your deity] why do pitchers not just throw strikes early in the count?) Not wanting to walk the bases loaded, he started sailing the ball down the middle. Monroe watched one and then swung and missed the next. By try number three, he had the range dialed in and deposited the tying homer over the wall.
Perhaps feeling that Mr. Peralta hadn’t had enough fun, Manager Trey Hillman let him start the 10th, and he promptly served up another homer to Justin Morneau. Closer Joakim Soria, who has given up something like five hits so far this season, was apparently unavailable because he had been forced to pitch two innings in the previous night’s extra inning defeat.[4]
The Royals, of course, went quietly in both the 9th and 10th.
Everyone knows they can’t hit. After 54 games they’ve been outscored by 59 runs. They’ve been shutout six times and scored one run another nine times. The pathetic lineups are averaging less than 3.6 runs per game and have a collective OPS+ of 82.[5] The team’s batting average is middle of the pack, but the Royals are last in the American League in home runs and walks. So they hit lots of singles, which doesn’t tend to help you score many runs. And though Manager Trey Hillman wants the team to steal more bases, they have a pathetic 60 percent success rate.[6] Yup, you can always count on the Royals to find a new way to lose.

My favorite victory call
And the Royals go quietly in the 9th. [Fill-in the blank] wins.


[1] Huh!?!
[2] One by the Mariners and one by the Pirates.
[3] He has a whopping 101.1 career innings pitched.
[4] OK, I lied. He’s actually given up seven hits and his ERA has skyrocketed up to 0.86 when I wasn’t looking.
[5] OPS+ measures how a teams On-base% + slugging % compares to the league average (which is set at 100 for each year). So the Royals have an OPS that is 82 percent of the league’s average. This stat is useful for comparing how players and teams did respective to their era. For example, the best OPS in 1968 – the year of Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA, might have only been .750, which would be about average today. But the OPS+ for that 1968 mark would be quite high because nobody else could get any hits. Anyway, this is just another way of explaining that the Royals can’t hit for beans.
[6] 29 stolen bases and caught stealing 19 times. Oy.