Royals Drop Game 2, 4-3

I really don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with Jason Vargas.

Entering tonight, Jason Vargas was the proud owner of a 1.52 road ERA. I'd say that it went up just a smidge. It was not a horrible start by any means. Just short of a quality start, Ned Yost took Vargas out after throwing 5.2 innings of decent baseball. 1.68 is his new road ERA, which leads the league.

Jason Vargas threw 5.2 innings while only allowing two earned runs. It wasn't quite good enough for a quality start, and also got hung with the loss.

With one out in the 6th inning, Evan Longoria singled to score Ben Zobrist and Brandon Guyer to put the dagger in Vargas. Aaron Crow would come in, and pitch 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball.

Moving onto the lineup.

Hits were not a problem for the Royals tonight. They had 13 hits. As a team, the Royals left 11 guys on base today. Salvador Perez was responsible for five of those runners. Clutch hitting was a big problem for the Royals tonight.

I will lay off of Hosmer for tonight, though tomorrow is a completely different story. The problem that I have is with Raul Ibanez. Not the fact that he was hitting eighth, but the fact that he was playing. I will say this until I'm blue in the face: Ibanez should not be an everyday starter. At 42 years old, we should've just signed him to a one day contract since he said he wanted to finish his career here.

Moving onto the bullpen.

Tonight was no Bueno. Yes, I'm THAT person. Francisley Bueno came in to pitch the eighth inning, and gave up two earned (kind of) runs. It was Alcides Escobar's mental error that led to the fourth run for the Rays.

The bullpen for the Rays wasn't very sharp tonight either. Jake McGee gave up two earned runs in the top of the ninth to put Kansas City within one run.

About the time that the game ended on an Omar Infante groundout, I thought to myself, "Gosh, I really wish Ned Yost would've used Wade Davis for the eighth inning." According to Yost, it's not okay to use Davis when we are losing. It's apparently a capital offense.

I believe his exact words were, "It's not his job to come in and pitch when we're losing. His job is to pitch when we are tied or have the lead." Newsflash, Edgar: We might have won the game had we used him for the eighth inning.

In other baseball news: The Dodgers did not help our case at al. They turned what was once a five run lead into a 14-5 loss. The Royals now sit 4.5 games back of first place. Do not fret, fans. Detroit comes to Kauffman Stadium on Thursday. It will either make or break our season, in my opinion.

With that said, there is still plenty of season left. Let's just hope that we don't Royal it all away.