Royals Beat Cardinals Again

Game Date: June 18, 2007
Royals 5, Cardinals 3 / Box Score
WP: Perez (4-7), LP: Wainwright (5-6), SV: Dotel (6)
Royal Home Runs: Buck (13)
Royals Record: 29-42

It's hard to get too excited when you look at the AL Central standings and you see that we are 13.0 games out of first place. But admit it...you've been watching the standings to see how close the White Sox are. For the record, the Royals are just two behind them. If the Royals catch them, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the axe fall on Ozzie Guillen.

Odalis Perez was pretty much what you'd expect tonight--six innings, three earned runs, three walks. But he could have given up a lot more. The Cardinals had bases loaded in the first inning with no outs, but Perez allowed just one run that inning. He got Juan Encarnacion to ground into a double play, and that was huge.

If you didn't have a chance to see the play that Alex Gordon made in the third inning, you must find a way. With the Royals leading 3-1, So Taguchi hit a ball that bounced over Gordon's head. Gordon was playing in and he had to leap for the ball while retreating. He picked it out of the air, came down, and made a perfect throw to Ryan Shealy at first to get Taguchi by less than half a step.

The top of the line up got it done for KC tonight. David DeJesus was 1-for-4 with an RBI. Esteban German was 0-for-4 with an RBI and a walk. Mark Teahen was 2-for-5 with an RBI. And Emil Brown was 2-for-4 with an RBI. The other run came off the bat of John Buck, who blasted his 13th home run of the season.

The combination of David Riske, Joakim Soria, and Octavio Dotel closed the door on the Cardinals over the final three innings--giving up no runs on three hits.

Tomorrow night, Scott Elarton (2-2, 8.54) goes against Kip Wells (2-11, 6.93) in the lets-see-who-can-last-past-the-third-inning match up of the year. Elarton is 4-3 in his career against the Cardinals with a 5.28 ERA. Wells is 3-3 against the Royals with a 10.44 ERA.