Gobble
Jimmy Gobble pitched a freakin' gem last night. He was perfect into the sixth, and had a chance to complete a shutout in the ninth. The guy looks about 12 years old, but he is by far the best starter the Royals have had this year.

But, of course, since the Royals are struggling so much this season, we must second-guess the manager. The radio guys were saying that Gobble's pitches were elevated in the eighth - a sure sign of a pitcher getting tired. I understand wanting to give Gobble the opportunity to get the complete game shutout, but the guy's tank was empty. He went back out in the ninth, got the first two batters out, but then gave up a double and a single to lose the shutout. Closer Mike MacDougal entered, gave up a single and 2 walks to allow the Jays to tie the game. Pena then summoned Nate Field to get the third out of the ninth.

The good news is that the Royals got a run in the top of the tenth on Aaron Guiel's homer, and held on to win. The bad news is MacDougal's failure to secure the save. Mac spent the first month of the season on the DL recovering from the flu, and had only one appearace before last night. I felt like MacDougal would have been better served to enter the game starting the ninth to give him a clean slate. Of course, he may have still given up two runs, but until he gets comfortable it seems like it would be better to avoid situations like that. Then again, that's what he's paid to do.

It was nice to get the win, and hopefully the Royals can string a few together and get out of their funk.

One other interesting thing about last night's game. Two Royals hitters wore the Golden Sombrero. Both Benito Santiago and Angel Berroa struck out 4 times last night. That's quite an achievement. I wonder how many teams have had multi-Golden-Sombrero games, and how many of those actually won their games.

BTW, I'm still trying to figure out why Eduardo Villaces got the start Saturday against the Yankees...