The Oakland A's are to Gil Meche what the environment was to ancient Sumerians: conquered.GilgaMeche: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K; season ERA: 2.15, from 2.23
Dan Haren: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K; season ERA: 1.89, from 1.75
Meche Meter: $400,000 earned, $3 million on season
The Royals don't win every time Meche takes the mound (5-3 on the season, and three in a row), but it just feels that way. Even on a night when pop-ups are dropped and base runners aren't advanced, it's comforting to know you can count on your starting pitcher to haul his portion of the payload.
About that Alex Gordon error: In the 4th, Nick Swisher popped up a 3-2 pitch into foul territory, where Gordon waited to snatch the ball out of the air. Somehow, though, the ball glanced off the top of his glove, which closed too soon, and smacked him in the face. Royales With Cheese documents the sequence, unkindly running it on loop. Swisher walked on the next pitch, and the next batter, as so often happens, hit a two-run homer.
A lesser pitcher, one would think, would have unraveled. Not the man-god king, however. Helped by a thunderstruck Mike Sweeney home run in the 8th (where's the video of that?), the Royals went on to win 3-2. I see new epics forming on the fingertips of technologically savvy bards. I sense one is coming.
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