I agree, today was very frustrating. KC had put up a zillion runs in the past couple games vs. Texas, and then come up with a dollar bill today. To me, THAT is the most frustrating part. I wouldn't say the offense is "utterly pathetic" as you've said, but it's definitely frustrating. The timely hitting isn't there when it needs to be. Sure, they closed the gap in game 2 of the Texas series, but not until they were down by 5 or 6.
I'm trying to be a bit more optimistic about things. The good news is that Grienke is showing some serious consistency. That's something that KC was merely hoping for this year and really hadn't seen in the past 2 or 3 seasons. So that's a big positive. Guillen, on the whole, had a respectable series. To be sure, it was better than he's done previously this year. Grudz, as you said, is a horse. He's a model ballplayer and always has been. St. Louis was dumb to get rid of him (I'm from the middle of MO, so I claim both teams... if you can believe that).
Billy Butler isn't putting up Ryan Howard-esque numbers like everyone was secretly hoping, but I don't think he's too far off. It's early, and he's shown that he has a lot of potential.
I think you nailed it when you started in on your "fundamentals and baserunning" soapbox. For every decent baserunning move we've seen this year, we've seen a mental mistake on the basepaths. I think Hillman is doing his best to try to manufacture runs, but there are also a remarkable number of mistakes on the basepaths. Most of them, by my estimate, aren't Hillman's fault (bad reads leading to bad jumps mainly). Some of them are a product of Hillman trying to make too much happen on the bases. But when your offense is in sleep mode, as we saw tonight, can you blame him?
Hillman is in a tough spot. With a lineup that averages barely over 3.5 runs a game, you almost have to play small-ball in today's game. Then again, a pitching staff with a 4.71 ERA will keep you from tallying many wins playing small-ball.
The key is more consistency from the starters. Bannister has been roughed up a bit recently. KC needs to get him back on track, and desperately needs to get some wins from the back of the rotation. We've seen maybe 2 decent outings from pitchers other than Grienke or Bannister. The back end of the rotation desperately needs to step it up.
That's it for my rant, thanks for reading. :-)
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