Marcum Takes No-Hitter into Seventh

Game Date: August 10, 2007
Blue Jays 2, Royals 1 / Box Score
WP: Marcum (9-4), LP: Meche (7-10), SV: Accardo (21)
Royal Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 50-64

The Blue Jays $386,100-man beat our $7,400,000-man. That's right, Shaun Marcum is making less than half a million dollars and he nearly no-hit us. And to make matters worse, he was born in Kansas City. But his 9-4 record and solid ERA (3.43) are an indication that he's better than his pay indicates.

Marcum took a no-hitter into the seventh inning last night. He started to cramp up in the fifth inning and he tried to gut it out, but eventually the cramps got the best of him and the Royals got a hit before he was lifted from the game. He'd only thrown 81 pitches up to that point, but it was still an impressive performance.

Gil Meche wasn't bad either, but he threw too many pitches (101) and he ran out of gas before recording an out in the sixth inning. He gave up two runs and that was all the Blue Jays needed. The Royals only scored once, in the eighth inning, when Joey Gathright singled to left, driving in Alex Gordon. Mark Teahen gave a ball a bit of a charge in the bottom of the ninth but it was caught by Reed Johnston at the wall.

Tonight, Leo Nunez (1-0, 1.93) will go against Dustin McGowan (8-5, 4.11). Nunez is 0-0 against the Blue Jays in his career with a 0.00 ERA (in 4.2 innings of work). McGowan is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA against the Royals (in 1.1 innings of work).