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Brown homers as Royals hold off Indians

Jul 15, 2007 - 4:19 AM CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Royals will take a win any way it can, especially at Jacobs Field.

Emil Brown hit three-run homer and Mark Teahen collected three hits as the Royals hung on for a 6-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday.

The Royals, who won for only the fourth time in the past 14 games in Cleveland, improved to 40-62 at Jacobs Field since the ballpark opened in 1994.

"It was a nice win here," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "(Cleveland) is a good team, a really, really good team. It's not an easy team to beat."

The loss snapped Cleveland's six-game home winning streak.

"I felt strong about our chances today," Indians manager Wedge said. "Even though we are down 5-0 early in the ballgame, our guys do what they do and fought back. We just weren't able to get that final hit."

Brown's three-run homer in the third gave Kansas City a 5-0 lead. After Teahen hit a one-out double and Billy Butler followed with an infield single, Brown deposited the first pitch he saw from C.C. Sabathia over the right field wall for his fourth blast of the season.

"I'll take it," Brown said. "Anytime you can get five runs off of (Sabathia) is a bonus."

Cleveland battled back as Trot Nixon delivered an RBI single in the fourth and Victor Martinez plated a run with a base hit an inning later.

The Indians got within 5-4 in the sixth, when Ryan Garko belted a two-run homer down the left field line off Royals starter Gil Meche.

"Against Cleveland, no lead really feels safe," Bell said.

However, Teahen led off the seventh with a double to right off of Sabathia, who then was let down by his defense.

Butler hit a slow chopper to third baseman Casey Blake. Instead of going for the sure out at first, Blake spun around and tried to get Teahen going to third.

Blake's throw bounced behind shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who was racing to cover third, allowing Teahen to score and give the Royals a two-run lead.

"I knew I had plenty of time to get Butler," Blake said. "I heard Jhonny calling for it. When I turned around, I felt obligated to throw it. If it was a good throw, we might have had him.

"It was just a bad deal. I should have just gone to first and made them work for the run instead of giving them one. It was an aggressive play, but a stupid play."

The error proved crucial as Travis Hafner hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to close the gap to 6-5.

"I felt bad giving them a run, especially after we worked so hard to come back," Blake said. "We would have tied it up the next inning."

Meche (6-6) won his third consecutive decision, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings while striking out six.

Meche looked in control early but started fading in the fourth inning.

"My last two outings, I've hit a wall for some strange reason," Meche said. "I have come out the first three innings with outstanding stuff, but then my arm gets tired."

The win was Meche's first against the Indians since April 23, 2003, when he was with Seattle. Entering Saturday's game, Meche was 1-6 with a 5.69 ERA in his last nine starts vs. Cleveland.

Joakim Soria pitched a scoreless eighth before Octavio Dotel worked around a one-out double by Grady Sizemore in the ninth to pick up his ninth save in 12 chances.

"Our bullpen was outstanding tonight," Bell said. "Soria was outstanding and Dotel did a good job of working out of it."

Sabathia (12-4) struggled, surrendering six runs and 11 hits in seven innings as he was hit hard in his second consecutive start. In his last outing against Detroit on July 5, the burly lefthander yielded seven runs in four innings.

"I feel fine," Sabathia said. "I am just throwing too many strikes. I am missing my spots. When I needed to make a pitch in the first couple of innings, they were hittable pitches."

The Royals jumped on Sabathia early, scoring two runs in the first. Mark Grudzielanek and Teahen each hit one-out singles before scoring on a double by Butler.