Baseball in the Daytime: 7-07-08

Normally, this gig is Old No. 7's. On occasion, Cecil or I will fill in for Seven if his boss is crackin' the proverbial whip a bit too hard, but this is his turf, and I'm blatantly invading it today. I've good reason, though. As I mentioned here, I'm certain that at this very moment, he's frantically putting together an All-Star post. And truth be told, his arthritis can't handle the keyboard work necessary for two posts in one 24-hour period, so just call me the giving tree. On a random note, how freaking bad ass was/is Shel Silverstein? I can't think of any author/illustrator that influenced my young reader mind more than he did. Anyway, I'm also helping out Seven because there's only one contest on tap today, and it features two clubs that don't interest him. See what I mean after the jizzy.

Kansas City @ Tampa Bay, 11:40 a.m.: Okay, I lied. They, if only today, interest Seven in that a Royals win would help his Red Sox narrow the gap between them and the first-place Rays. Thus today, your usual BitD author actually roots for his whipping boy. Never in the annals of written baseball coverage history has one man so frequently ridiculed one club. The countless knee-slappers likening the Royals to a non-big-league squad, the piles of jokes about how their games count slightly less than all of the MLB others, the hilarious assertions that they should move to the minors, or sign Barry Bonds, or whatever the flavor of the day is, never, ever, gets old.

Therefore, allow me to tell you that at the aforementioned Central time, Gil Meche and his Kansas City Royals take the field at the Trop for one last chance to nab a victory from the Rays. In a match of righties, Meche battles Matt Garza who brings seven victories and a 3.47 ERA to the mound, while number 55 has one less win, one and-a-quarter points more to his ERA, but a 24-count edge in the strikeout department. Meche has been historically bad against the Rays, and that was when they were terrible. Garza is coming off a solid performance against the Red Sox, which was after his first ever complete game.

While today's lone reacharound match doesn't hold tremendous weight regarding the season-ending standings, its common element for both clubs is time. For the Royals, time is running out for them to fulfill my year-old prediction of threatening to play .500 ball. Now, they're in a better spot this year than they were nearing last year's All-Star break, but no longer can they afford to ruin hard-earned wins like the two they fought tooth and nail for in the Baltimore series by getting dominated in games like the first and the third of this series with Tampa Bay. For the Rays, they've got nothing but time working for them, and in their favor. Their rotation has been pretty solid, and their bats only seem to keep getting hotter. If they can build on their five-game edge over the Sox, and the Yankees continue to play mediocre ball, the East will almost effortlessly be theirs.

Anyway, those listening from work in the KC area can tune in to 610 on the AM dial, while Tampa-St. Pete residents can crank the knob to either 1250 or 680. Satelliters can zero in on the 178 frequency on the XMs. That's if for this morning. Get out there and kick some devilless ass, Royals!