11 hits, 3 walks, and...just 3 runs?

I didn't see the game last night. Usually when it's a win, I'll actually read the recap. When it's a loss, however, I go straight to the boxscore.

You know, so I can lay some blame, rant and rave -- all w/o the nuisance of actually knowing what happened. I mean, why would I need to know that? The stats are there...I see an 0-fer, and I mark that guy for death rays of baseball-hatred and curses of inconvenient dandelion growth. Never mind that the 0-fer could've been the result of four consecutive highlight-reel catches made by Adam Jones, or a nasty gnat cloud that only seem to populate the home base area when that particular hitter was at the plate. Hey, real men hit 450ft. home runs when gnats are buzzing in their face, right?

But this game is one of those head-scratchers. I see there's 11 hits (a double and a HR among them), 3 walks, and only one GIDP. How does a team avoid scoring that 4th or 5th run with all that action?

And if you're wondering, no, I'm not really avoiding talking about Joakim Soria blowing another save -- it's more like I'm wondering why he was given the ball with only a 1-run lead in the 9th. Of course, you'd hope your closer can hold that lead down more often than not, but the overriding theme in the losses these last couple of weeks is the offense letting down the pitching staff. It's a simple fact that the Royals will need to outscore their opponents for most of their wins, so when the Royals leave 10 on base and lose by a run or two, I look at that as the main culprit.

So...what else?

• The Blake Wood haters are pretty quiet right now. Although me saying I thought he was a stud or something would be a outright lie, I didn't mind his callup -- there wasn't a lot to suggest he'd be much good, but in a let's-see-what-we-have-for-2012 type of season, I didn't see a lot of harm in it. Still a very small sample size, but his numbers look good right now, especially the almost 3-to-1 k/bb ratio and the .674 OPS against. And since all it'd take is one bad outing to wipe all that out, he'd really have to throw another 40 innings like that before I'd call him legit. To this point, however, he's been pretty good.
• With this outing from Soria, by the way, I can literally ~feel~ the Aaron-Crow-for-closer conversations starting. The conversations are fine in a hypothetical scenario where Soria is traded, but if Soria is on the team, he'd need to be this poor for a while longer to seriously consider this. Talk to me in July.
• Despite whatever missteps led to them only scoring 3 times in last night's game, 11 hits is nothing to sneeze at, and with the scoring breakout against the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday in a losing effort, the Royals offense could be getting back into gear...and none too soon, as this is very likely about their last chance to stay relevant -- the Cleveland Indians aren't letting up, and the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox have woken up.

This week will suck hairy goat testicles for me as far as both blogging and catching Royals games, and possibly next week as well...I'm in the middle of Oregon for work, and working longer hours, at that.

Odd thing I found out today, though -- apparently the Bend, Oregon area is consider the local market for...wait for it...the San Francisco Giants, a team that is in another state and 500+ miles away. At least, that's what MLB.com told me when I tried to stream their game last night. And I don't blame them, either. You should SEE the frenzy of Giants fandom up here -- sure, the locals don't mention it to your face, but I'm certain there's a bevy of Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval jerseys floating around here most days, not to mention a ton of "Fear the Beard" t-shirts.

Or, it could just be that I got hosed.