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Braun has monster game as Brewers crush Royals

Jun 23, 2007 - 5:30 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Perhaps the Kansas City Royals should have selected Ryan Braun in the 2005 draft.

Braun, who was passed up by the Royals three years ago in favor of Alex Gordon, had a career-high four hits and finished a triple shy of the cycle to lead the Milwaukee Brewers to an 11-6 win over Kansas City on Friday.

Braun, the fifth player selected overall and third third baseman behind Gordon and Washington's Ryan Zimmerman in 2005, hit a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run double in a four-run fourth. He is batting .333 with five home runs and 16 RBI since a late May call-up.

"They (four-hit games) are pretty rare, and tonight was a special one," Braun said. "My plate discipline was a little bit better, I was swinging at strikes and when I do that, I can hit the ball pretty hard."

Corey Hart added three hits, including a three-run home run, and four RBI for the Brewers, who won for the eighth time in nine games.

"We're playing well as a team, and it's nice to win," Hart said. "Right now, we're in a good stretch, were getting guys out and getting big hits

In contrast to Braun, Gordon was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored to raise his average to .233 for the Royals, who lost their third consecutive game.

The Brewers took the lead in the fourth when Kevin Mench doubled off Royals starter Jorge De La Rosa (4-9) and scored on Rickie Weeks' double to snap a 2-2 tie. After pitcher Jeff Suppan singled, Hart drove in Weeks with a single to left.

"They were pretty impressive tonight," Royals manager Buddy Bell said of Braun and Hart. "They've got a lot of good young player. We knew that coming in, and they'll be an interesting team as they get older. They're already good."

De La Rosa, a former Brewer, struck out Craig Counsell before giving up a double to Braun down the left field line that scored a pair to make it 6-2.

"I'm still not satisfied with where I'm at," Braun said. "I've still got room for improvement, but I feel like I'm making adjustments quicker, which is the key to being successful, I think."

Hart homered off reliever Neal Musser in the bottom of the seventh to push the lead to 10-5. He is batting .366 with seven home runs and 17 RBI in 17 starts as the Brewers' leadoff hitter.

"He puts the ball in play, he's got tremendous power as he showed tonight with a home run the opposite way, and he can run," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "I've always thought Corey could be a 20-25 home run-a-year hitter."

The Royals scored three times off Suppan in the fifth on Emil Brown's sacrifice fly and Ryan Shealy's two-run double, cutting the deficit to 6-5.

One inning earlier, the Royals touched Suppan for a pair of runs. Gordon had an RBI double and Tony Pena an infield RBI single off Braun's glove.

Tony Graffanino hit a solo home run in the sixth off De La Rosa, a player for whom he was traded to Milwaukee last season.

Suppan (8-7) received the win despite allowing five runs on nine hits in five innings. Carlos Villanueva pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts, Derrick Turnbow a scoreless eighth and Matt Wise closed out the ninth.

"Suppan pitched a lot better than the scoreboard showed," Yost said, "and Carlos was very, very good."

Meanwhile De La Rosa was not very good. He allowed seven runs on 10 hits with six strikeouts and lost his fifth consecutive game. It was the second loss in two days for De La Rosa, who gave up a walk-off homer to Ryan Ludwick in relief Wednesday as the Royals fell, 7-6, in 14 innings to St. Louis.

"We need to get some innings out of our starters," Bell said. "We don't have anything (better) right now, so hopefully (De La Rosa) gets better."