KANSAS CITY- GAME RECAP

June 22nd - Cleveland 6 Kansas City 5 - Attendance 31,572.

Rookie C.C. Sabathia was on the mound for the Tribe while newly-acquired Paul Byrd went for the Royals. After two scoreless innings, KC got on the board on Mark Sweeney's 3-run shot in the 3rd. In the 5th, Royal left fielder David McCarty dropped an easy fly ball off the bat of Einar Diaz allowing him to reach second. After a Kenny Lofton sacrifice, Omar Vizquel singled Diaz home to make it 3-1.

The Royals got that one back in their half of the 5th on a walk, single, and Juan Gonzalez error. In the 6th, Ellis Burks led off with a home run and Jim Thome walked, signaling the end of Paul Byrd for the day. Blake Stein came in and after getting one out, gave up a 2-run home run to Russ Branyan. The game was tied at 4 but Stein remained into the 7th. With 1 out, Robbie Alomar singled and Juan Gonzalez crushed a 3-1 pitch to give the Indians their first lead of the game.

In the 8th inning, Steve Karsay came in to pitch for the Indians. What was strange about this is that he had already been traded to the Braves! He didn't know that however, and pitched well, giving up only a single in one inning of work. When he left the field, the Indians said their goodbyes and two days later he appeared in a game for Atlanta.

Bob Wickman, who would soon be supplanted as the closer by the arrival of John Rocker (traded for Karsay) came in to close out the game. He struck out 3 batters, but did allow one run to score on a walk and a single. The final was 6-5 Indians and Byrd, who left with a 4-1 lead but received no decision, was very critical of his bullpen. When interviewed after the game, Byrd blamed Stein for not doing his job - it was a bit of refreshing honesty for a change.

Mike Sweeney swings

June 23rd - Kansas City 3 Cleveland 2  - Attendance 29,808.

It was Salute to Negro Leagues Night and both teams responded to wearing the old Negro League uniforms by scoring early. The Indians, wearing the 1946 Cleveland Buckeye uniforms, scored first on an Alomar homer, but the Royals, sporting 1940 KC Monarch uniforms, replied by scoring 3 runs in the first inning. Luis Alicea led off with a double, Rey Sanchez sacrificed him to third but was safe at first when Thome dropped the ball and both scored on Sweeney's single. Branyan bobbled the ball and Sweeney got to second, scoring on Joe Randa's single later in the inning. The Royals scored 3 runs off Dave Burba, but only 1 was earned and those unearned runs would come back to haunt the Indians.

Alomar swings in this 1940s shot

Jim Thome connects

Ellis Burks hit a solo shot in the second off Chad Durbin to bring the Indians within 1, and it looked like a high-scoring game was in order. But both starters settled down with Durbin giving up only 2 hits through the next 5 innings while Burba was even better, yielding only 1 single through the next 7 frames. The Royals bullpen did the job today with Jason Grimsley and Roberto Hernandez each going 1 scoreless inning and the Royals won a great game 3-2. 

Both of these games were 1-run affairs, and both were interesting but for completely different reasons - they get an 8/10 rating.

Buck O'Neill signs before the game