Royals forget how to run bases in loss to Minnesota

Jason Smith
Jason LaRue
Mark Grudzielanek

This list serves several purposes. First, it is a list of the three Royals players who hit home runs tonight against the Twins. It is also a list of Royals players in tonight's lineup who seemed like the least likely candidates -- besides maybe Tony Pena Jr -- to do so.

David DeJesus robbed Torii Hunter of his 2nd tater of the night, and I'd post a video of it if MLB wouldn't kill me for it. It will likely be a highly ranked Web Gem tonight on Baseball Tonight. To me, the best part about that catch was Hunter's reaction. He waved off DeJesus as if to say either, "Come on, just let that ball go out," or "Awww man, I can't be mad about not getting a homer; that was awesome!" I choose to believe, based on Hunter's reputation as a jolly guy, that his line of thinking was closer to the latter.

Other than DDJ's sweet robbery, the Royals looked a little...off tonight. Maybe it was the pathetic baserunning in the early innings. Three caught stealing? Come on! Maybe it was the utter inability for anyone named Jason to hang on to a ball. Remind me again why LaRue plays, ever? I'm not a fan.

No surprise that Octavio Dotel was traded today; the only thing that surprised me is that Atlanta was able to finish off the Teixeira deal in time to finalized the Dotel deal. This is what I heard last night about what to expect from Davies (from a dedicated Braves fan who has coached baseball for many years, and pretty well knows what he's talking about): His fastball generally comes in chest-high at 90 mph, and doesn't move a whole lot.

I hope there's more to Kyle Davies than that, but you know me; I'm always loudly skeptical until a new acquisition gives me reason not to be, and then makes me eat my words. (See: Gil Meche, Joey Gathright, etc.)