Roll the Royals

(June 5)

Short Take:  Wells, Durham lead way!

Kansas City is one of those putrid bottom-feeder teams Sox Fans fear the worst.  While the 2000 team caved in skulls against New York and Cleveland, wasn't it the Royals who owned a winning record against our champion Pale Hose?  Just as our '01 team begins to claw its way back into the race, here come those three-legged mongrels from KC to take a piece out of our Achilles' heel, right?  We hate these mutts.

So it was extra-satisfying to watch the Sox pick up their bats and beat these awful creatures about the head from the very start Tuesday evening in Kansas City, winning 6-2 in fine style.  From the moment Ray Durham crushed one for two Sox runs in the top-half of the first inning, Sox Fans knew this game would be different.  It was Durham's single in the third that keyed another 3-run explosion for the Sox, thanks also to yet another spectacular play by Jose Valentin sliding into the plate knocking the ball out of the catcher's mitt with his foot.  

How many ways can Jose Valentin win a baseball game?  The world may never know.

Sox starter Kip Wells was dominant again.  As we savor the possibilities now opened by the 10 of 11 winning streak,  let's take a moment to reflect on the contribution this guy has made.  It was Kip Wells who ended that nighmarish 8-game losing streak.  It was that victory, too, that started our current improved play, too.  Maybe the kid really is "The Terminator"!

Wells went 6.1 awesome innings allowing just four hits, one run (a dinger by Jermaine Dye), a generally mowed down everything in his path.  He got in trouble in the seventh, but Sean Lowe and Bob Howry were there to shut the threat down.  Howry went 2.1 innings to nail down the save.

So this is how everyone else beats Kansas City?  Let's see the same script tomorrow!