Ribbie Reporter -- Strangled by the Sox

Can you guess how it happened?
Tuesday night, the Royals blew a 5-3 lead in the 8th inning and went into extra frames against the White Sox. In the 11th the Sox had bases loaded when A.J. Pierzynski[1] banged a ball to deep right center. Joey Gathright made the catch, but two runners came around to score on the sac fly? Can you guess why/how?
A few hints: There was no error on the play. There was no overthrow. The man on second did not leave early.
Answer to follow later this week.

Doh! Oy!
Late in the game Manager Trey Hillman took out José Guillen and replaced him with Joey Gathright, I assume for defensive purposes. Later, catcher John Buck pinch hit for Gathright, and then Tony Peña, Jr. came into that spot in the lineup and played shortstop (other defensive shuffling occurred as well). Now I understand that Guillen is a mediocre/bad defender, but he was also unavailable for 9th, when the cleanup spot came up with the game tied, and again in the 11th, when Buck hit, and finally in the 13th, when the spot came up again with the bases loaded and one out (the Sox walked Alex Gordon to get to the now vacant cleanup spot). Obviously the Royals weren’t going to let “$1.55” Peña hit in this situation, but the only person now left on the bench was Mark Grudzielanek, who has a .313 average but was on the bench for a very good reason – he’s been battling a bad back and wasn’t feeling well enough to start in the first place. Grud rolled a soft grounder straight towards the second base bag for a game-ending double play. Don’t you think it would have been a tad bit more helpful if Guillen – the man who is currently third in the AL in RBIs – had been available to hit then?

The agony continues
I feel like I use the word agony a lot in my posts. The next night, Kansas City built a 6-2 lead after four innings. The only early blemish came when Brian Bannister gave up a double to Nick Swisher and then gave up a homer to Carlos Quinten.[2] Then in the sixth, Bannister – a pitcher supposedly known for his control – walked Swisher, who has a .236 average. Quinten, of course, followed that with another homer.[3] Bannister walked Jim Thome – he of a .238 average – to start the 7th, and Thome scored on a two out double, making the game 6-5.
Robinson Tejada came out to pitch the 8th. He greeted the Sox by walking Orlando Cabrera and Quinten (the Royals had seen enough from him by this point, so I can’t fault that walk as badly). In between the walks he got Swisher to fly out. On came Ramon Ramirez, who yielded a pair of two out singles that scored both Cabrera and Quinten.
So the Royals walked five batters, and four of those batters scored. They outhit Chicago 13-5… and lost 7-6.
As a relevant aside, it’s worth noting that Octavio Dotel – a former Royal – closed out the game by striking out three Royals on 10 pitches. Gee, Royals relievers. Do you think it might be helpful to take a page from the division leader’s playbook and try throwing strikes? Or what about watching Joakim Soria, your own closer, who rarely throws more than 12 pitches in an inning, almost always starts a hitter off with a strike at the knees and has a 1.62 ERA? What’s that you say? You say Soria didn’t pitch last night because you all coughed up the lead before we could ever make it to the 9th? I see.

[1] It’s common knowledge that not many fans or players around the league like Pierzynski, but the real sign of how unpopular he is in clubhouses came when the players elected Jason Varitek – he of the average barely over the Mendoza line – to be the second AL catcher in the all-star game instead of Pierzynski.
Pierzynski’s numbers: .293 avg, .329 OBP, .437 slugging
Varitek’s: .215, .297, .354
[2] Raise your hand if you thought Carlos Quinten would be on pace for ~38 homers this year.
[3] Now raise your hand if you knew who Quinten even was before May.