As unlikely a hero as anyone else in the royals lineup, Alberto Castillo nailed a walkoff homer in the bottom of the 9th to beat the Tribe 6-5.  The royals had a fairly solid approach at the plate if not on the basepaths.  Bautista pitched a lot better than his 5ER in 5IP showed.  He struck out five, walked two and had a GB:FB ratio of 8:2.  Groundballs finding holes and the universal lack of range for the royals defense turned it into a bad outing.  The bullpen looked better.  Kyle Snyder wasn't particularly sharp but Macdougal managed 3 K's in the critical 9th inning without walking a batter and Cerda did an exceptional job in a tough spot.

I'm not even remotely delusional enough to view this as the halmark of a winning streak.  This team badly needs an improved infield defense and more range than Stairs can provide in RF.  Unless Sweeney starts drawing BB's, Huber is more valuable as a 1st basemen right now.  Teahen's defense might not have been great early, but its better than Joe McEwing or Graffy at 3rd.  Matt Diaz deserves a spot on the roster, he is murdering AAA proving that his numbers weren't simply a Durham mirage.  Omaha is a slight pitcher's park.

Other notes:

Calvin Pickering has not had enough AB's to make any significant conclusions.  However, he has been unbelievably awful.  I understand K's and I understand his low batting average.  What I don't understand is the high number of fastballs.. down the middle, that he is swinging and missing at.  Its one thing for a slugger to rack up K's working the count deep and taking borderline pitches for called strikes.  It's quite another for a hitter to miss on 3/4 of the pitches they are swinging at.  Pickering has not looked good so far.. Thank god Harvey isn't exactly lighting the world on fire at AAA.