Piling it on

"It hasn't been a breeze for Hochevar, but the Royals have given him great run support." -Ryan LeFebvre, after Luke Hochevar finished his start tonight

By the time Luke Hochevar exited the field tonight, the Royals had already scored as many runs in tonight's game as they had in Hochevar's last seven starts combined. How is it even possible to score fewer than 11 runs in any selection of 7 games? Gads.

I loved everything about this game, with the minor exception of Hoch giving up double-digit hits, but since he struck out 6 and walked none, that's quite a nitpick. Especially when Mike Aviles heaps on four hits, scores four, and the whole offense explodes for a game like this. The D'Back "defense" helped a little bit with it, but the Royals finally did a good job of capitalizing on the opportunities created by both their own bats and opponents' defensive ineptitude.

Really, this night was a fabulous showing for all types who were at Omaha to start the season: Hochevar with the win, Aviles with a near-cycle, Jeff Fulchino with a good 1-2-3 inning, and of course the debut of Carlos Rosa.

Rosa looked really good - I wish Ryan, Splitt, and Joel had not been chit-chatting (entertaining as that was) instead of calling the action. I know it wasn't a leveragey situation at all, but Rosa's performance was encouraging. He looked as comfortable against big leaguers as he did against AAA hitters. I think his mental readiness was the biggest question surrounding his callup; Dayton Moore has been saying since he watched Rosa in Omaha weeks ago that his stuff was ready for the Bigs and they were just concerned about whether he was ready mentally. Glad to see him steamroll his opponents and, for at least tonight, justify the roster move.