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Marcum's successful homecoming lifts Blue Jays over Royals

Aug 11, 2007 - 4:47 AM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) - Shaun Marcum's memorable homecoming was cut short because of an injury.

Marcum had his no-hitter broken up in the seventh inning and Vernon Wells drove in two runs to lift the Toronto Blue Jays to a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday in the opener of a three-game series.

A Kansas City area native, Marcum (9-4) held the Royals hitless through 6 2/3 innings, facing the minimum number of batters through the first four.

"It's a lot of fun to come back here," Marcum said. "We had a lot of fan support. My brother rounded up a lot of buddies. I had 23 tickets out, but they bought up another 200. It was fun to have that support."

Making his first career start at Kauffman Stadium, Marcum (9-4) allowed just four baserunners - none past first base - before departing with cramps in his right calf leg after surrendering a two- out infield hit by Billy Butler that ended his bid for a no-hitter.

"The heat got to me a little bit," Marcum said. "I wanted to stay out there as long as I could, but I didn't want to risk getting hurt. (Toronto manager) John (Gibbons) did the right thing."

"We decided that if he gave (the no-hitter) up, he's coming out," Gibbons said. "We're not going to risk it."

The 25-year-old righthander had four strikeouts and just two walks en route to winning for the fourth time in as many starts. Marcum, who attended high school in Excelsior Springs, a suburb of Kansas City, has a 2.36 ERA with 20 strikeouts in that span.

"He's got a big heart," Gibbons said. "We started to notice the no-hitter in the middle innings, but it's not the first time he's done that. He's made some really good starts for us."

"He's a gritty guy," Blue Jays catcher Gregg Zaun said. "He didn't have a good grip on the ball after the first inning. He had the fastball and we tried a few changeups but he kept throwing the one pitch he could grip and he kept moving it around. It was a pretty typical performance from him."

Wells, who had two hits, gave the Blue Jays a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning with a two-run double to left-center off Kansas City starter Gil Meche after Lyle Overbay and Alex Rios led off the inning with base hits.

"I got a fastball I could handle," Wells said. "I was lucky enough to put some good wood on it and we got two runs. They turned out to be big. When Gil Meche is pitching, runs are hard to come by."

Joey Gathright's one-out single scored Alex Gordon in the eighth for Kansas City's only run, cutting Toronto's advantage to 2-1.

Jeremy Accardo pitched around a hit in a scoreless ninth to record his 21st save of the season.

Accardo received an assist from left fielder Reed Johnson, who made a leaping catch at the wall to take away an extra-base hit from Mark Teahen and preserve the lead.

"When it left the bat it looked like it had a chance to go out," Zaun said. "But Reed made a great play. Those guys are great defenders. It doesn't surprise me at all that he made it."

"He has done a heck of a job for us," Gibbons said. "He can do a lot of things and he can play defense. It might be a different game without that play."

Meche (7-10) remained winless over four starts despite holding the Blue Jays scoreless for the first five frames. The righthander allowed two runs and seven hits with five strikeouts over five-plus innings.

"(Marcum) pitched well," Meche said. "We couldn't get to him and they got to me. I left a couple of pitches up, gave them a chance to put it in play and they did. I had trouble holding onto the ball. When I was ahead in the count I wasn't putting them away like I needed to. My whole day was a 3-2 count."