Tonight was supposed to be a typical decent pitching match-up between the young Kyle Davies of the Royals and the veteran Vicente Padilla.
Instead, it ended up in the same way Tuesday’s night game ended—it all came down to the bullpen and the better hitting team. Vicente Padilla earned the win while Jimmy Gobble took the loss, and the Rangers won 11-5.
Kyle Davies continued to pitch lights out in just his third career start for the Royals. He finished the night with six innings pitched, one earned run, six hits allowed, three strikeouts, and five walks.
While on the other side of the mound, Padilla continued to look inconsistent, giving up four earned runs and three free passes in six innings. He only struck out two. This was enough for the win to move to 8-3 on the season.
Unfortunately for Davies, the Royals bullpen was unable to hold the 5-1 lead after he left. The inning after Davies left, the Royals pitchers gave up seven runs in the seventh, and three runs in the ninth.
It took the Royals three pitchers to get out of the seventh inning. Jeff Fulchino gave up three runs and Jimmy Gobble four runs. Yasuhiko Yabuta brought two innings of scoreless baseball for the Royals, but the damage had already been done. Brett Tomko also struggled again, giving up three more runs in the ninth.
The Rangers bullpen was nothing short of spectacular, giving up no runs in three innings of relief. Jamey Wright, Eddie Guardado, and Frankie Francisco combined allowed only five hits to secure the win for Vicente Padilla.
The player of the game was Rookie of the Year candidate David Murphy, who was responsible for five of the 11 runs scored by the Rangers. He was the highlight of the night, hitting a grand slam in the seventh inning off of Jimmy Gobble. He also started a three-run streak in the ninth inning by hitting a solo shot to right field of Tomko.
The only bright spots for the Royals were Mark Grudzielanek, who drove in four runs in a 2-for-5 night, and Kyle Davies, who continued to shine.
Other game notes include the hitting streak of Michael Young ending at 23 games. This was David Murphy’s first career grand slam. The Rangers bullpen has not given up an earned run in three straight games while the Royals blew a four run lead for the second straight night.
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