Sooooo Glad I Fell Asleep: Royals 6, Orioles 5

Yeah, so when I fell asleep, the O's were beating the Royals by a 5-3 mark. Zack Greinke had just been pulled for Horacio Ramirez, Bukvich had somehow navigated out of a tricky inning, and my residual sun burn from Sunday's game was stinging something fierce.

So I figured that falling asleep wouldn't be that bad of an idea at that point. The bullpen was going to hold a 2-run lead. They had all season long. The Royals aren't an offensive juggernaut. I posted an article yesterday using numbers and everything showing why they weren't a great offensive team. The O's pen is third in the AL in ERA. Safe bet, right?

Some crazy shit happened while I was sleeping, though. Sarfarte (thank you, Gary Thorne) BALKED in a run by accidentally dropping the baseball. The Royals tied it in the ninth off of Flat Breezy with a 2-out, 2-strike homer by Miguel Olivo. Yes, I know who Miguel Olivo is. Just barely, though. Kind of the same way that Miguel Olivo's family knows him. Just barely.

While we're on the subject, what kind of crazy fucking rule is that? You drop the ball, and it's somehow giving the pitcher an illegal advantage? For real? You're going to sit here with a straight face, Major League Baseball rulebook, and tell me that dropping the ball like that does ANYTHING other than make the pitcher look like an idiot? If it gives the runner a disadvantage at all, it's because the runners stand there, stunned, laughing uncontrollably at the pitcher to the point that they can't make it back to the base. Anyway...

Then in the 11th, Jose Guillen... the same guy I warned all of you about in regards to his clutchitude yesterday, drove in the game-winning run on a single off of the Yellow Submarine (Chad Bradford).

I probably would have said not nice things to my television at this point. I may have thrown inanimate objects at it. I can't be certain though, because like I said... I fell asleep in the 7th. With a 2-run lead comfortably safe.

I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with Breezy lately. It's the second game in a row in which he's given up a 2-strike, 2-out homer with a lead. Apparently he hung a slider to Olivo. Apparently it was the third slider in a row (dumb). And apparently Olivo has enough baseball ability to hit a third-consecutive slider that's somewhere in the vicinity of his belt over a fence that they put up in the outfield. I guess that's why they keep him around. Or something like that.

Does Sherrill have a dead arm right now? Meh, it's debatable. Sure, he's pitched more innings this year than he has in... ever. But his stuff is still there. He struck out Billy Butler to end the inning last night. He struck out two in D.C. before letting Lil' Manram take him deep. So the stuff is sitll there. He hasn't lost a ton of velocity. He just hung a pitch last night. He hung one the night before, too. These things happen.

I'm not even sure why Ramon called for a third-consecutive slider, either. I mean, I'm not making $8 million a year to call a game, so far be it from me to question his pitch selection... but shouldn't you change it up at that point? You know, maybe after throwing two sliders down that Olivo flailed at, wouldn't you pitch a fastball up and see if he fishes for that, too? Is it just me? I mean, I know that Ramon wanted that ball to kiss the dirt and not the seats... I know Sherrill screwed up... but I'm just thinking the slider call wasn't smart there. But what do I know? I was asleep.

And for the safety of others around me, I'm glad that I was.