Meche Shuts the D’backs Down

Game Date: June 16, 2009
Arizona @ Kansas City
Royals 5, Diamondbacks 0 / Box Score
WP: Meche (4-5), LP: Davis (3-8)
KC Home Runs: None
Royals Record: 29-34 / Record in June 6-7

At the end of last season, the Royals had a Jekyll & Hyde vibe. Were they the awful team that endured two long losing streaks or were they the team that won 18 games in September?

Nobody really knew.

We still don’t.

We started well, then went into the tank. And now we have this nice four game winning streak thanks largely to some extremely good starting pitching.

Ever since Gil Meche moved to the first-base side of the pitching rubber, things have been different for him. Here’s a blurb from Bob Dutton’s article last night showing how different:

This makes four straight “quality starts” for Meche, 4-5, since his move to the first-base side of the pitching rubber. Further, he has allowed just three earned runs in 29 innings in those four games.

His ERA is down to 3.31 from 4.55.

Last night Meche was dominant and a bit old school because he convinced Trey Hillman to let him go back out for the ninth inning even though he’d already thrown 109 pitches. He ended up throwing 23 more in the ninth inning to finish with 132, but afterward Hillman said he wasn’t concerned about Meche’s pitch count. I like that.

Mark Teahen had a nice game, even though he was hitting in the eight hole, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. He’s hitting .333 in June. And Mike Jacobs even had a couple of hits off Davis, who is a lefty. You don’t see that very often.

The Royals will take their winning streak into their match up with Arizona tonight. We’re in a portion of the schedule in which we have to play good baseball if we have any hope of salvaging the season. So far, the Royals aren’t having many problems with the National League. Let’s hope their success continues.

Tonight, Zack Greinke (8-2, 1.72) will go up against Max Scherzer (3-4, 3.63). Greinke is 0-0 against the Diamondbacks in his career with an 8.74 ERA in 11.1 IP. Scherzer has never faced the Royals.