Fashionably Late, Moderately Useful Royals-Rangers Preview

Yesterday afternoon, I was thinking about this two-game series and wondered if it was worth it to preview.

Then, I noticed the Royals didn’t have their announced starting pitcher for tonight’s game and I didn’t feel like writing in length about Bruce Chen, so my decision was to wait until the second starter was announced. And then that didn’t happen until game time and then it became a decision to write about Vin Mazzaro, which I also put off. And then we had technical issues which made my decision for me.

So, tonight, one night after Bruce Chen vs Scott Feldman, we have Colby Lewis vs Vin Mazzaro.

So, a little late, but here’s my rundown on the Royals pitchers.

Bruce Chen was once a top prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization. Back when being a Braves pitcher was something. He also played for the Montreal Expos for part of the 2002 season. The Expos were his fourth team in his career. He has even played for the Rangers (I swear, I didn’t know that before I looked it up). He has played for 10 teams in his career, he is only 34 years old and has had the best years in his career lately. He might not play as long as Jamie Moyer, but if he does I guarantee you he plays for all 30 teams.

Vin Mazzaro is a lot younger than I thought he would be and has pitched one inning in relief this season. Last year, on May 16 he gave up 14 runs in 2.2 innings. I thought I recognized his name from somewhere. That was in a spot start for Bruce Chen. Now it is another spot start, and it wouldn’t be beyond the Rangers to put up 14 runs… Let’s hope for his sake, it doesn’t happen again.

In last night’s game, Feldman pitched a pretty good game, but when it came down to it, Adrian Beltre made a costly error that allowed the go-ahead run to score and the bats were dormant, and having some of the biggest bats on the bench waiting surely didn’t help their cause.

It was an off day for the offence, and they have a chance to salvage a split against the Royals who have have rebounded slightly after a disappointing start but still have key players either injured (Joakim Soria, Danny Duffy) or struggling (Eric Hosmer). Wouldn’t it be ironic should this Royals team be the first to sweep the Rangers. We can laugh about that if it happens while we wait to face the Oakland Athletics.