Stewart's 2011 Baseball Trip: Minnesota Twins @ Kansas City Royals (2)

The second and final game of the short 2-game series was won by the Royals. A sweep. Lots more hitting from both sides today, with one of the up and coming stars of the Royals, Luke Hochevar, pitching. Between the two sides, there were 6 stolen bases, He went 6 innings, giving up a couple of runs and left with a handy 7-2 lead. Whilst the Twins got one in the 7th to make it 7-3, they managed to make it interesting by loading the bases in the top of the 9th. However, Holland game on to get the final out and seal the victory for the Royals.

The only reason for the Royals' poor record can be inconsistency. On their day, they can beat anybody - it's just that there's not enough days like that yet. Alex Gordon looks a bright prospect, and Hosmer also hit a home run. On the other hand, the Twins aren't having their strongest year, but then again, Pavano's a good pitcher (he pitched game 1) and they beat him fairly easily.

I liked some of the inter-inning features. In addition to the hotdog race (video screen only, unfortunately, unlike the Pierogi race in Pittsburgh which is "real") which was won by Relish on Tuesday, Ketchup on Wednesday, and the oft-found Kiss Cam, Kansas City also have an "Oblivious Cam", which is where somebody in the crowd who is not paying attention is shown on the video board, together with a clock which keeps running until the person notices that they're on the screen and waves. The chap tonight failed to notice for 28.6 seconds!

The stadium is lovely and is built to shade the premium seats from the heat of the sun in day games. Even for the 3.10pm start, the Diamond Club box seats were in shadow from before the start. In fact, as the game went on, I was beginning to feel a little chilly, as the wind picked up - outside in the sun, it was pleasantly warm. According to the locals, it is unseasonably cool for the time of year - high 60s, low 70s. They would expect it to be warmer. On the other hand, there's a frost warning for areas not far North of KC tonight!

I liked all the fountains around the outfield. They run in a waterfall mode most of the time except during breaks and on KC home runs when they turn into a nice show of water jets. In the night time, they illuminate the fountains in different colours too.

There's something special about these stadia that leave one side open to give a view of a city skyline (or of fields and I-70 in KC's case!) In a late afternoon game, there's a short period of maybe 15 minutes or so when the sun is almost down, the skies are clear, the stadium lights are starting to take effect, and the heat of the day is fading. The light is clear and perfect, the constant low murmuring of thousands of conversations in the crowd, and you feel that there's nowhere else that you'd rather be.