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Royals withstand Marlins' charge in win

Jun 17, 2007 - 11:13 PM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Esteban German delivered a go-ahead double in the sixth inning Sunday and the Royals held on for a 5-4 victory over the Marlins in the rubber game of their three-game series.

Kansas City took advantage of a some softly hit balls that found a hole and a couple of errors by rookie center fielder Brett Carroll to scrape out enough runs and complete its third straight series win.

"They're allowed to do that," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the bloop hits. "They hit the ball and it fell. That happens. It's frustrating, but that's baseball. If we make a play here or there, or catch a ball, it's a different ballgame."

Trailing, 2-1, in the third inning, Kansas City put runners at first and second with two out for Emil Brown, whose pop fly fell in for a single in short left-center, driving in David DeJesus to tie the score at 2-2.

"It seems like when you are playing good baseball and you hit balls off the end of your bat, they end up falling in," Kansas City catcher Jason LaRue said.

Carroll, playing in his first major league game, then muffed the ball, allowing Mark Teahen to score. Carroll was charged with a second error when his throw home sailed over the catcher, allowing Brown to advance to third. Gordon followed with a pop-fly single, scoring Brown for a 4-2 lead.

"I wish I could say it was good, to get the first one out of the way," Carroll said. "But not in this fashion. I tried to do a little too much; I was a little too aggressive. I thought about trying to dive for it, then I thought I should try to keep it in front of me but it got away. It was not a good first day, but I will have to learn from it."

"The ball didn't bounce our way," Florida's Aaron Boone said. "It's a little frustrating. We swung the bats good and pitched good. A couple of little doinks fell in for them. We answered, but we couldn't finish them off."

Jeremy Hermida's sixth home run of the year - a two-run shot - tied the score at 4-4 in the sixth inning, but Kansas City answered again in the bottom half of the frame.

In the bottom half, after Tony Pena Jr. reached on a one-out bunt single against Kansas City starter Scott Olsen (5-6), German doubled to deep right-center field, scoring Pena with the go-ahead run.

"We have to fight, no matter what the score is," German said. "We try to always go up to bat like the score is tied."

That hit made a winner of Brian Bannister (4-3), who allowed four runs and nine hits in six-plus innings to win his fourth straight decision. His streak of 18 scoreless frames was snapped in the second inning on doubled in a run in the third inning.

"I try to play chess games with the hitters," Bannister said. "Today I was just thinking, 'How can I get through this?' I was playing chess again today, but it was like not having my queen or my rook."

The Royals survived a scare in the top of the seventh when Boone doubled to lead off the inning, driving Bannister from the game. Carroll bunted Boone over to third and with the infield drawn in, reliever Zack Greinke got Alfredo Amezaga on a grounder and Dan Uggla on a fly to right to preserve the lead.

"Sometimes, as a pitcher, everything clicks," Bannister said. "Today didn't feel that way. I was committed to not walking guys, so I was wild in the strike zone and I kind of spread things out. I just tried to buckle down and make my pitches when I had to.

"The only pitch I regret is the one to Hermida. I've got to give credit to our defense and to our offense for picking me up. Give those guys credit. Every time I gave up a run, those guys came right back."

Greinke pitched two scoreless innings before handing the lead to closer Octavio Dotel, who survived a hit and subsequent stolen base in the ninth to record his fifth save in as many chances.

Olsen allowed 10 hits and five runs in six innings, walking three and striking out five. It was the ninth time this year that Olsen had walked at least three.

"Olsen did OK," Gonzalez said. "Not getting the shutdown inning after we score is what hurts you. It's about the momentum; it's important, probably not in the statistics, but it's important because of the momentum."