The O-Royals tonight, and a personal note about robbery :(

I would like to make this post more substantial, because I think the way Luke Hochevar pitches during his temporary odd-man-out exile to Omaha will say a lot about his composure on the mound. And as we’ve heard and read many times, that’s a bigger potential problem than the pitches he actually throws.

Don’t be fooled by the three runs Hoch gave up in the 3rd inning Thursday night. He actually looked pretty decent, stuff-wise, and each of those runs could be attributed to a poor defensive decision or miscue. Scott Thorman got an AWFUL read on a low fly to left, and it sailed over his head when he came in on it to catch it, and a run scored.

Later in that inning, with another run already in thanks to the Grizzlies having their way with Omaha catcher J.R. House, Fresno had runners at 1st and 2nd. Travis Metcalf fielded a grounder at 3rd, stepped on the bag for one out, and should have held the ball right there. Instead, he threw over in the general direction of Kila Ka’aihue at 1B, and missed horribly. A run scored on that play too, before Hochevar stopped the bleeding by inducing a ground ball for the third merciful out.

Aside from that circus of an inning, Hochever pitched pretty well, but did not dominate as he did in his first six AAA starts of the year. He did have nine groundouts compared to three flyouts, which is typical Hochevar fare, and several of Fresno’s base hits were also ground balls that happened to find an opening.

The Royals made it interesting with a couple of runs in the 9th, but fell a run short for the 2nd consecutive night.

Tonight’s crowd of 6,090 pushed the ORoyals total attendance to over 11 million fans! If you want to know more about that, check out an ORoyals program, because I wrote a little feature on what a big number 11 million really is.

On a personal note, if you’ll indulge me for a moment, the reason I couldn’t offer up a more in-depth post tonight is that some jerk tried to rob me. Either he sucks at robbery or I’m good at thwarting, because I am still in possession of all my belongings, and more importantly I’m physically unharmed. I’ve always wondered how I’d respond in such a situation, and it turns out my instinct reaction is to yell a lot of swearwords at the perp. My brother’s reaction was to sprint out of his apartment (in front of which the robbery attempt took place) and smash the window of the getaway vehicle as the accomplices started to drive away. Hopefully the Omaha PD can catch the jerkholes, because that’s just not OK. But even if they don’t, I’m just grateful that I’m safe and that the would-be robber didn’t have a gun or a knife.

ANYWAY, dealing with all of that – from cursing the living daylights out of the failed robber as he fled to waiting for and talking to the police – took a really long time, and I have to get up early and drive a couple hours for a family get-together tomorrow. So no more blogging, I’m going to bed. 

And, to all the ladies out there, let this be your friendly reminder to stay alert and on your toes if you happen to be walking anywhere at night. You never know when you’ll have to use the skills you learned in self-defense class!      

Related posts:

1. A personal note
2. Omaha Royals open at home tonight
3. A short Royals note