James Shields Shines Against Yankees

When facing a pitcher that tends to handcuff your team (and let’s face it, that happens to our beloved boys in blue far too often #pray4Royalsbats), you can only hope that your team can have a guy on the mound capable of maintaining a slim lead. James Shields was up to the task Friday evening. A few notes for you:

• James Shields went 8.1 innings and threw 97 pitches giving up 3 hits with 6 strikeouts and no walks. He retired the first 11 Yankees in a row.
• Ned Yost brought Wade Davis in for the final 2/3 of the ninth inning to collect his first save of his career. Wade threw his second wild pitch of the year with the tying run attempting to steal from first. Luckily, the pitch took a weird bounce off the backstop or Antoan Richardson might have taken third. Davis was able to strike out Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran to finish off the game.
• Michael Pineda went 7 innings giving up 3 hits with 4 strikeouts and no walks.

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The only run of the game came in the third inning. After Lorenzo Cain flied out to lead off the inning, Alcides Escobar was able to reach and then advance to second on a fielding error by Chase Headley. A single by Nori Aoki plated Escobar and the Royals had the run they needed.

A nail-biter for sure, but these are games you have to win when the offense struggles to produce. Danny Duffy attempts to guarantee a Royals’ series win tomorrow afternoon.