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Missouri is (largely) Cardinals country.
Royals owner David Glass received his welfare check.
The St. Louis Cardinals appeared at Kauffman Stadium over the weekend. The annual visit is less about the "rivalry" that exists between the two teams than putting extra cans in the seats.
The series allows Glass to imagine what it's like to operate Missouri's
No. 1 baseball team. The fantasy typically ends with the Cardinals
celebrating the gain they made in the standings by virtue of the fact
that their Bud
Selig-generated nemesis tends to trip on its shoelaces.
But not this year.
The Royals looked like a real team for most of the 2010 version of series. Manager Ned Yost employed a strong strategy on Friday night; he let the Cardinals see only his two best pitchers, Zack Greinke and Joakim Soria.
The people in the stands -- those wearing blue, anyway -- were chanting "Let's go Royals!" as the Mexicutioner locked down the 4-2 win on Friday. On Sunday, starting pitcher Bruce Chen kept things together well enough for the the Royals to take the rubber match. Back to your cars with a frown, Cardinals fans!
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The Royals honored the '85 team for the 271st time with this poster giveaway.
St. Louis has a downtown ballpark,
an exceptional manager and
Albert Pujols. But for a weekend, at least, Kansas City appeared to be the baseball town that knows what it's doing.
Yost grades Kendall on a curve: Yost rested 36-year-old
Jason Kendall on Saturday. The decision to give the veteran catcher a day off allowed the skipper to
wax on about Kendall's skills as a hitter.
Kendall, of course, no longer possesses useful offensive abilities, such as getting on base or hitting for power. Instead, Yost says he counts on Kendall to "move runners to third" and other things nobody measures because they don't win games.
Royals blogger
Jeff Zimmerman wanted to put a price on Yost's decision to allow Kendall's
worn-out ass to hit second. The answer: 4.3 runs over the course of the season.
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Ned Yost doing a Bobby Grich impression.
The number would be larger if the Royals had better options to hit in No. 2 spot. But they don't, which is a big part of the reason why the team is 32-44.
The ghost of Pete Rose's hairy forearms: Is there anything less interesting than a hitting streak?
José Guillen's reached 21 games. But he's hardly carried the team on his back. During the stretch o' hits, Guillen has walked only three times, and his slugging percentage has actually gone down.
New rule: A hitting streak has to reach 30 games to become noteworthy.
In other developments, first-round draft pick
Christian Colon signed for a bonus
reported at $2.8 million, one run was
enough to beat Stephen Strasburg, and
Kyle Davies and his 6.00-plus ERA continue to hold down a spot in the rotation. Way to zip in the there, Kyle!
Next up: Chicago White Sox, @ Los Angeles Angels.
Cardinals image via Cinemarxist's Flickr.
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