Affeldt

Last night, in a rare night game in Arizona, the Royals played the Angels to an 8-8 tie in 11 innings. Jeremy Affeldt got the start for the Royals, and while he got knocked around a little bit (11 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts in 5 innings), the good news is that he threw 88 pitches with no sign of irritation on his troublesome middle finger.

It was interesting to hear his remarks during the radio broadcast of the game last night. He said that he feld good and that the curveball was coming out of his hand good, but the dry air prevented it from breaking the way it should. He was confident that once they head to KC and get into more humid air, his pitches will all be working well. When we saw him pitch in Surprise a couple of weeks ago, I noticed his curveball wasn't quite as good as it normally is.

It might be interesting to look at how pitchers do at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, compared to other, more humid cities.