Game Story: Tavarez Puts Sugar in Our Collective Gas Tank.

First of all, thanks to britsoxfan for the excellent image you see here on the front page.

It's unlikely Tavarez gets more bowling practice anytime soon. I have to think that he will be replaced, if not by his next start, then the one immediately following. And that's okay. I had theorized already that this workload could be too much at his age, five years removed from starting regularly. As I told Randy earlier, find someone to diagnose him with a sore elbow, give him two weeks off, and then give him Pineiro's "job". If the FO had hopes of him being a serviceable starter OR trade bait for an NL team down the stretch, it's clear he's going to be neither.

The good news is, he was absolutely cruising for the first few innings, so it may just be stamina issues.

Credit to both bullpens, who did superb jobs throwing zeroes up after lackluster performances from both starters. Timlin's not messing around, either, seemingly going after Snydes' long relief job. 20 pitches for 7 outs? Yes please. MDC = solid, as was Paps.

This Royals pen has been one of the best in the Majors lately, and if you're not convinced of how tough a late-inning win is even against lesser bullpens, check out this post from YFSF from a couple days ago. If they're that hard to come by, expecting them against the likes of Dotel and Soria (the way they've been pitching lately) is almost entirely wishful thinking.

Offensively, pretty much everyone contributed, and we still left 8 on as a team. No one ran themselves into flyout double plays this evening, however, and Coco made a great "play" with Drew's sacrifice "fly". Lugo came through in the "clutch". And DP had that multi-hit game that someone predicted for him.

Nice job by 'Tek to catch not one but TWO runners attempting to steal. While German and Gordon aren't exactly, well, Lugo and Crisp, it was still nice to see him at least temporarily overcoming a lacking part of his game that is often overlooked.

You might disagree, but I'll go with Timlin and his 2 1/3 scoreless. Aided by a CS, sure, but it was an impressive performance by a guy not afraid to trust his defense.

Who else? Batshit McCracken. Youks and his 4 LOB was a close second, however.