Royals improve record to 2-4 over past six games

Well, you've got to start somewhere. The Royals put together a nice win today, with David DeJesus and Mike MacDougal standing out. DeJesus went 2-for-4 with three key RBIs, and MacDougal slammed the door on the Mariners with a beautiful 1-2-3 ninth. After getting Raul Ibanez to ground out, Mac struck out Richie Sexson looking on a sweet 3-2 inside slider, and he finished off the M's by getting Adrian Beltre swinging on a perfect 1-2 sinker in the dirt.

The Royals jumped out to an early 7-1 lead, but the Mariners steadily chipped away against starter D.J. Carrasco. However, the bullpen managed to halt the rally on the backs of Mike Wood, Jimmy Gobble, and MacDougal, who combined for 2.2 innings of one-hit baseball.

RC has been listening to the High Desert game tonight, and we're pleased to report that Billy Butler recorded his first outfield assist. He raced to the left center gap to cut off a ball, then he spun and fired a bullet to second base, where he nailed a greedy baserunner trying to stretch a single into a double. The Mav's announcer was quite impressed with Butler's throw.

As for the rest of the game, at press time Butler was 0-for-3 with a walk. However, Adam Keim hit his 20th HR of the season, a no-doubter to dead center field. By the way, here's today's Butler Photo of the Day:

Since this has been a rather short post, we figured that we'd offer up a pretty cool photo we took of John Buck in Colorado. Before you ask, no, that is not RC's official right arm -- RC isn't all that interested in acquiring autographs.