He was out

That's what I felt when I blurted, "He's out!" as I was watching live, but looking back on it, I really have no idea. Maybe Paul Phillips swiped Shannon Stewart's left leg before his right foot touched the plate, maybe he didn't. Truly a bang-bang play that could have gone either way.

Here's what Phillips had to say afterwards:

"I had my foot in front of the plate. I honestly thought I tagged him out before his foot came off my foot. I think we should still be out there, but it doesn't matter what I think. The umpire thought he was safe and his opinion is the one that counts."

This was after a furious three-run Royals rally in the 9th off Alan Embree and Jay Witasick -- yes, that's former Royals starter Jay Witasick, who posted ERAs of 5.57 and 5.94 in his time here -- which was capped by a Tony Pena Jr. triple that plated two and tied the game at four. As you can tell, both Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer were unavailable due to injury. Pena now has five triples on the year. More notably, he went 4 for 5 on the night to raise his average to .257. Maybe the presence of Angel Berroa is inspiring him to play better. Just maybe?

Only 14,966 were on hand in the Coliseum, which probably means a good number of Bay Area folks were at home watching Golden State lose to the Jazz. As Quin Snyder, nee coach of Missouri basketball, and brave samurai of a distant time and place have learned, so too did Golden State and its followers last night: you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And the Warriors died a sad, unheralded death.

POSTSCRIPT: In other news, Billy Butler's been optioned back to Triple A, which isn't surprising given that the big league club couldn't find a place to play him and in fact hasn't played him since May 12. Clark Fosler over at Royals Authority offered an insightful read yesterday about the Butler situation.