Keys to the game (5/5)

Keys to the game-

1.) Do not underestimate. The Royals have not done well so far this season. Their 9-18 record ranks second to last in all of the Majors, with just the Toronto Blue Jays (9-19) behind them. Jason Hammel takes the mound for the Royals tonight. He has struggled terribly recently with making quality starts and with any sort of consistency in his command. With a 0-3 record and a 6.65 ERA in 21 2/3 innings pitched, he looks like a completely different pitcher from the Jason Hammel we saw win 15 games with the Chicago Cubs last year. Despite all of these struggles, we cannot underestimate this team. We need to go into tonight’s game and simply outplay them. Don’t play down to their level. Dominate. Let’s jump on Hammel early and give Danny Boy an early lead to work with.

2.) Settle in early! Danny Salazar has really struggled with finding his command and control early on in ballgames. So far this season he has given up 3 home runs, all 3 coming in the first inning. He has given up 15 runs so far, 8 of those coming in the first inning. While his 13.03 strikeout ration per nine innings is the best in the league, he has a 4.34 ERA and a 2-2 record. The reason his ERA is so high is because of the runs given up in the very first inning of the game. The Kansas City Royals are not the offensive powerhouse that they use to be, but we don’t want to be the ones to give them any offensive confidence. So this would be the perfect time for Danny Boy to figure out how to work out those first inning jitters/kinks/mechanical issues during his pregame warm up and come out ready.

3.) Lock it down. So do you remember a couple of days ago when I said that our bullpen was ranked 2^nd in all of Major League baseball? Well, just within that short time… that has changed. We are now ranked 1^st. That’s right, we are the best. With a 1.91 combined ERA, our pen has only allowed 17 earned runs in 80 innings of work. They have also combined for 96 strikeouts. Just to put those numbers into perspective, the bullpen currently in 2^nd place is Boston (gag); they have a 2.20 combined ERA, have allowed 21 earned runs in 81 2/3 innings pitched, and have 92 strikeouts. Our bullpen not only maintains, they lock it down. Danny Salazar has had trouble getting to the 7^th inning, so chances are that we will need our bullpen to cover some innings today. We need them to keep dominating.