Montreal (AP)--The Royals played their lower-end division rivals, and made a long week of it. On Monday, Montreal got trounced 9-2. In the second game, the Montreal pitching couldn't hold on to the game despite some good offense, and they ended up dropping the game 10-6.
On Wednesday, the Royals managed to speak by with a win, which would turn out to be their only win in the 4-game series. Pete Harnisch started the game strongly, giving up only 5 hits and 1 run in 6 innings of work. Harnisch was taken out of the game holding a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th after a solid no-hit inning by young lefthander Steve Kline, Montreal made it 4-1 with a two-run single down the rightfield off Bobby Bonilla's bat.
Mesa came in to work the final out in the 8th, but not before putting three men on base and letting the Oiler Kings narrow the lead to 1. Alex Speaker took over in the 9th and got his 5th save of the year after striking out Nomar Garciaparra and Joey Cora for the final two outs of the game.
Yesterday the Royals had a chance to tie the series at 2 apiece. Mike Grace was on the mound, but he failed to capture his 13 win due to a shaky start on the mound. In the first three innings Grace had trouble getting batters out, and in both the second and third innings he was fortunate to limit the opposition to 1 run. Edmonton sealed the game in the 6th inning: first, Garciaparra got on first with a single, then Cora hit a blooper to the left of the pitcher, only Grace threw it over the reach of firstbaseman Goodwin. That turned out to be a costly error because Tim Salmon hit the next pitch over the rightfield wall, making the score 5-1.
Roberto Alomar and Curtis Goodwin provided the offense for the Royals. Alomar drove in all three runs and hit a home run in the 8th, although it was too late by then. Goodwin scored a run and stole 2 bases, now leading the team in stolen bases with 21.
"Right now," said the Royals' manager, "if Curtis Goodwin had been playing all year, he would be among the top in the league in stolen bases. He really is a promising young player. In August and September, we have given him the green light." Meanwhile, catchers have yet to catch him stealing all season. By comparison, Kenny Lofton has been caught 7 times.
Only 60,923 came to attend the week-long series against the Edmonton Oil Kings, an average of 15,231 per game. This was particularily due to the unseasonably cold temperatures, reaching a low of 7 degrees C on Thursday.
Luis Andujar Moves Into Rotation
Andujar replaced Santo Skinner as the fifth starter and got his first start a few days ago.
Skinner is still on the active roster, although he will be used more infrequently, probably in long relief. Despite leading starters in ERA with 3.97, the righthander was one of the losingest pitchers in the league. His record from starts is 4-13 (he has more losses than any other pitcher on the team has wins). Skinner usually pitched good enough to win, but he had the worst run support among starters, and the 3rd worst in the league.
Luis Andujar spent most of the year in the bullpen, going 2-0 with a 5.31 ERA. Andujar trained in the Grapefruit League as a starter, but he was put in middle relief to strength the bullpen.
"We thought it was a good opportunity to give Andujar a shot a starting spot before the year came to a close," said the pitching coach. "Santo had pitched a lot of innings and he was showing signs of tiring--plus, he is expected to have surgery on his elbow in a month, and we figured it wouldn't help his arm if he continued to pitch and the rate he was previously."
"Luis pitched well in the preseason... even though he's had some rough innings throughout the season, we decided that this would be a good time to show his stuff."
