Whew.

That was an impressive game by Alex Gordon.

First of all, he singled! I mean, I haven't seen a single since...

...hm, maybe I could've just glossed over that.

Wait...I can't. That single led to two stolen bases, and resulted in him scoring on...

...oh, he didn't actually score, did he? Jeff Francoeur hit a comebacker to the pitcher to end that threat.

So, alright, let's just forget about his offensive contributions and talk about his defense, then, shall we? Not one, but two great defensive plays:

1. He threw out Lou Marson (who isn't exactly Jarrod Dyson on the basepaths, admittedly) in the 7th trying to score on a single. Well-thrown, accurate one-hopper that Brayan Pena caught right where it was thrown on the baseline while doing a textbook wall-off of home plate. It was a thing of beauty that stonewalled Marson, who just didn't seem like he wanted any part of trying to score once he recognized he was beaten.
2. Then, in the 9th inning with Joakim Soria struggling (yes, again), he made a diving catch on a soft liner slicing away from him in LF. If he misses it -- well, honestly, we all hate Alex for a day and I change the poll to a guess on how many days it'll take the Royals to be back in the cellar. But he didn't, and it turned out to be crucial to help Soria to yet another save. Er, I mean, "save".

And as far as other things from yesterday's game:

• About those "saves". Soria has 5, now, which puts him on pace for 50 on the season. If he keeps racking up saves with these kinds of performances, I honestly think it would finally cause baseball writers to consider not giving a flying fuck about that stat anymore, because only in 2 of the 5 has he pitched anything close to well.
• More shaky bullpen fun, whee! Blake Wood didn't look horrible, but...well, he gave up a run in a tight game, which just isn't good for a reliever pitching just one inning. This means the only two relievers left in the Royals 'pen that have been untouched so far in 2011 are: Aaron Crow (who has pitched well) and Nate Adcock (who hasn't pitched in over a week).
• I want to introduce Bruce Chen to Shin-Soo Choo. Say that ten times fast.
• Ho-hum, another hit and a walk for Billy Butler. Ho-hum, another hit and two walks for Wilson Betemit. Ho-hum, another two strikeouts, no hits, and a well-executed sacrifice bunt that wasn't supposed to be called for Kila Ka'aihue.
• And I'd be remiss if I didn't recognize the two-hit game by Alcides Escobar, in addition to more of what's got to be some of the top defensive SS being played in the league right now. I should know, since when I watch the Giants I get to see Miguel Tejada...so I know what the other end of the spectrum looks like, trust me.

I'm pretty confident in Luke Hochevar tomorrow. To this point, I haven't really seen much of why Cleveland's been scoring so much, so I can allow myself to think that Hoch can shut them down, right? If I haven't seen it, it must not exist.