Meche Dominant in Royals Win

Game Date: May 3, 2007
Royals 5, Angels 2 / Box Score
WP: Meche (3-1), LP: Weaver (1-3), SV: Soria (5)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 10-19

How much fun is it to watch a guy on the mound who knows what he's doing? Gil Meche had yet another great outing this afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. He was almost unhittable. Vladimir Guerrero hit a screaming line drive over the left field wall in the first inning for a two-run home run, but after that he settled in and shut down the Angels. At one point he retired 17 straight. He hit his spots, his curve ball was nasty, and you could tell that he was confident. Gary Matthews even commented about it after the game. The Angels managed just two hits off Meche.

Of course, none of that would have mattered if we hadn't figured out a way to score some runs--a task we've been struggling with mightily as of late. But our offense did some good things today. John Buck hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning to drive in the first Royals run of the day. Ross Gload (who was 4-for-4 with 2 RBI), hit an RBI single in the fourth to drive in Mike Sweeney. Alex Gordon got down a good sacrifice bunt in the same inning to move runners to second and third. Tony Pena had a two-out RBI hit in the sixth to put the Royals in front. And in the seventh, Gload doubled with two outs to drive in Teahen, and Billy Butler singled in Gload for his first major league RBI.

Brandon Duckworth looked good again out of the pen (no hits or runs in an inning of work). And Joakim Soria, while he struggled, nailed down his fifth save of the season.

So the Royals ended up splitting the series with the Angels and now get set to begin a new series against the Tigers this weekend. Brian Bannister (0-1, 4.91) will go up against Justin Verlander (1-1, 2.79) tomorrow night. Bannister has never pitched against the Tigers. Verlander is 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA against the Royals in his career.