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Meche shuts down Red Sox in Opening Day win

Apr 3, 2007 - 2:23 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- This is what the Kansas City Royals had in mind when they opened up the checkbook for Gil Meche this offseason.

Meche allowed six hits in 7 1/3 innings in his debut and Mark Grudzielanek had three hits as the Royals pounded the Boston Red Sox, 7-1, in the season opener for both teams.

Meche, who signed a five-year, $55 million deal in offseason, handcuffed the Red Sox, walked only one and struck out six in his first career Opening Day start.

"I think the biggest key was getting out of that first inning with one run and Schilling having a long inning, too, which gave me time to relax and get things under control a little bit," Meche said. "If he had not had a long inning, who knows what might have happened."

"Gil, in the middle innings, got into some kind of rhythm," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "I'd like to have about 30 of those. I'm happy for him. There's a lot on his shoulders."

The win moved him to 4-1 lifetime against Boston and snapped a two-game Opening Day skid for Kansas City.

Grudzielanek, only one of nine players returning from the Royals' 2006 Opening Day roster, also scored twice and registered three RBI. He singled and scored in the first, had an RBI single in the second and knocked in two more runs with a double in the fourth, all off Red Sox starter Curt Schilling.

Grudzielanek had struggled against Schilling over the course of his career, batting .185 (12-for-65).

"I got one game out of about five or six," Grudzielanek said. "He's been tough on my career. I had the approach in the past that I was way too aggressive with him, so I was trying to work the count. I was relaxed and it worked out good for us today."

The Royals' last two hitters, Tony Pena, Jr. and John Buck accounted for four extra-base hits, including a solo homer and double by the catcher. Acquired from Atlanta on March 23 for minor league pitcher Erik Cordier, Pena hit two triples, the 25th time in team history that a Royals' hitter accomplished that feat.

"Pena set the tone with the (first) triple," Buck said. "We were surprised to see two triples this early, but that was a huge at-bat on his part.

The Royals have won seven of their last 11 games against the Red Sox dating to the 2005 season.

Schilling struggled, allowing five runs, eight hits and two walks over four innings in his first career Opening Day loss in six starts. It was his shortest outing since Game 1 of the 2004 American League Championship Series.

"I had no fastball command," Schilling said. "I cannot remember ever having that being the case where I couldn't make the adjustment. As a starting pitcher you can make your team a lot worse and that was the case today. I made mistake after mistake, compounding the problem. All four of the runs I gave up today were with two outs."

"I've always preached, to the younger pitchers, that if you make a mistake location-wise, you come back and make an adjustment. It was physically more than anything else. I made bad pitches. I pitched very, very poorly. It (the outing) stunk, it didn't improve, and it got worse. I struggled the whole game and did not adjust."

Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia had two hits apiece for the Red Sox, who have lost six straight to the Royals at Kaufman Stadium.