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Davies, Royals crown Twins

Aug 9, 2007 - 10:43 PM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Kyle Davies' life has been anything but normal in the past 10 days.

But on Thursday, Davies was masterful, tossing 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Kansas City Royals held the Minnesota Twins to three hits in their 1-0 victory. He struck out five and walked two, throwing 62 strikes in 97 pitches.

For Davies, returning to normalcy was a welcome change.

Davies was traded on July 31 by Atlanta to Kansas City, joined the Royals the next day in Minneapolis just as manager Buddy Bell resigned effective at the end of the season and the bridge collapsed near the Metrodome to cause a game to be postponed.

In addition, his first American League start Saturday came at Yankee Stadium, where he gave up Alex Rodriguez's 500th career home run in the first inning.

"It was a very weird week, last week was tough," Davies said. "I get traded. I get to Minneapolis and the bridge falls on my way to the field. As soon as I got to the stadium, Buddy Bell told me, 'I don't know if you've heard anything, but I've announced I'm going to retire.' That's the first time I've met Buddy.

"I go to New York and A-Rod happens to be sitting on 499. Then in my first game here (Tuesday), the lights go out. It was a rough week, but I'm glad it's over now and we started something a little bit better."

Davies made his first Kauffman Stadium start on Thursday and demonstrated first-hand why the Royals sought the 23-year-old right-hander in the deal for closer Octavio Dotel.

Davies (1-0) bested Matt Garza (1-3), who allowed one run on four hits, while walking none and striking out six in 6 2/3 innings. The Twins have scored two or fewer runs in five of Garza's six starts since he was called up last month.

"Their guy had great stuff, but our guy had a little bit better stuff and our bullpen did a great job," said Bell, who picked up his 500th career win as a manager.

Bell said he was eager to see Davies pitch again after his three inning no-decision start at New York.

"The Yankees are beating up on everybody," Bell said. "I don't think you can evaluate anybody facing them right now. Because of the way he competed, the kind of stuff he had, I was anxious to see him again. He didn't let any of us down."

The Royals scored their only run in the third, which Tony Pena Jr. led off with a double to left. He advanced to third on Joey Gathright's sacrifice bunt and scored on Jason LaRue's sacrifice fly to Torii Hunter in center.

"Garza threw the ball very, very well," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "They figured out how to score one run off us and we couldn't figure out how to score one run off them. Davies kept us off balance the whole game. He threw the heck out of the ball."

Garza lowered his ERA to 1.70, which belies his 1-3 record.

"We are here for a pennant race," he said. "I'm not here to pad my stats. I want to give us the best chance to win and I obviously didn't do that. I should have put him (Pena) away when I had two strikes on him. He hit a good pitch, a slider away, and drove it."

Davies did not allow a hit until Jason Kubel's two-out double in the fifth. He was stranded when Rondell White grounded out to Alex Gordon.

Davis began the game by walking Alexi Casilla, who went to second on a wild pitch. Casilla, however, did not advance beyond second as Davies retired Jason Bartlett on a pop up to second, Joe Mauer on a fly to center and struck out Michael Cuddyer.

"The whole first inning, I had problems locating anything," Davies said. "I came in the dugout and asked the pitching coach Mac (Bob McClure), 'What am I doing with my hands? I feel like every time I throw the ball, I'm going this way and my hands are going the other way.' He said, 'Don't worry about it.' I went back out there and the next inning I was able to locate my fastball, my change up, a slider and a curveball.

"Maybe that's the key, just don't think about where they're going to be and they'll be where they need to be."

Casilla singled with one out in the sixth and stole second, but went no further.

Davies left to a standing ovation.

"That was pretty cool," he said. "I don't know if anybody saw it, but I smiled on the way to the dugout. It's pretty neat being in a new place and never pitched here."

The Royals needed three pitchers to get out of an eight inning jam. Zack Greinke began the inning, but with one out he gave up a single to Casilla and walked Bartlett. Left-hander Jimmy Gobble was summoned to face Joe Mauer, who flied out to Pena. Joakim Soria was brought into face Cuddyer, who struck out for the fourth time to end the inning.

Soria earned his 12th save in 15 opportunities, retiring all four batters he faced.

The Twins, who collected 19 hits in their 11-4 victory on Wednesday, went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

"We really didn't have many opportunities," Gardenhire said. "You shake your head and wonder what's going on. You score that many last night, come back today and can't find a way to score a run. It's disappointing for our club. That's been the story of our season, not backing up a good day yesterday with a good one today. That's as a unit, not as individuals."