Hernandez wins again....

It looked like a miserable night in San Francisco, as a foggy, wet mist fell on the field throughout the game, but in the end, the Royals prevailed 4-1 over the Giants on the heels of another stellar pitching performance. Tonight, the portly Runelvys Hernandez was the hero, and the bullpen, while a little shaky, managed to bring the game home. Hernandez's line on the night doesn't look all that dominant, but this was easily one of the better games he's pitched all year:

6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R (earned), 4 BB, 3 K

The one run he surrendered was a HR to Ray Durham on a ball -- I believe it was a slider that didn't break -- that Hernandez left up in the zone. But that was his only mistake of the night. Some folks may be concerned about the four walks, but the strike zone was ridiculously tight, and Hernandez was around the plate all night. Of his 102 pitches on the evening, 67 were strikes. Walks on a night like tonight don't concern me that much.

Offensively, there's nothing too exciting to report, other than RC favorite David DeJesus continuing to regain his early-season form with a couple nice line drive singles to left field. Angel Berroa stung a few balls tonight as well, but I suppose that's bound to happen every now and again when you swing at everything.

All together, this was the second nice win in a row for the Royals, and Buddy Bell now boasts a 6-2 record as Royals skipper. Of course, Jose Lima pitches tomorrow. It would be nice if the Royals could win the game in a 15-14 slugfest, but I have a gut feeling that Lima will benefit from SBC's vast outfield, and unfortunately "earn" himself another start. If not, the bullpen is well rested, so the Royals still may be in good shape. We'll see.

Moving along:

The second day of the amateur draft carried no major surprises, although the Royals did draft high school SS Justin Bristow with their 22nd round pick. Bristow was ranked by Baseball America as the fourth best high school senior available in the draft, and he was projected to be a first round pick. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Virginian lasted until the 22nd round because he has a scholarship to attend Auburn University in the fall, and he seems determined to go. It will take a lot of dollars to pry him away from college, but RC is convinced the Royals ought to try. Signing him would be like stealing another first round pick -- even if we deprive yet another young man from receiving higher education (can you hear the violins?).

The Royals somehow managed to trade Eli Marrero to the Orioles in exchange for a Pete Maestrales, a minor league infielder. Maestrales is a non-prospect, as he's about to turn 26 years old and is still stuck in low-A ball, but it's still an interesting trade. The most important aspect of the deal is that the O's reportedly will also take on some of Marrero's salary. No word yet on how much, but this truly seems to be a case of RC Official Hero Allard Baird again getting something for nothing. Of course, RC also predicts that Marrero will now go on a tear and hit over .400 for the rest of the season, just to spite us.

RC promises to bring you the finest Royals commentary on a daily basis, but occasionally we still get scooped. Unfortunately, it happened yesterday with the draft coverage, as a competing blog run by Clark Fosler (you may know him as cfos) did an excellent job on his draft coverage. You can read his analysis of the Royals first day picks here.

Royals Corner has been up and running for less than a week, but we're proud to announce that today we passed the 1000 hit mark, and this afternoon we welcomed our 500th unique visitor. A heartfelt "thanks" goes out to ALL of our loyal readers, and we look forward to exposing even more people to our brand of optimistic Royals analysis in the future.