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Bases-loaded walk fuels Royals past Brewers

Jun 24, 2007 - 11:17 PM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Royals cooled off one of the hottest teams with a late rally and spoiled a strong outing by one of the game's top newcomers.

Joey Gathright's bases-loaded walk in the 11th inning gave the Royals a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on Sunday.

Gathright also had an RBI groundout that tied the score, 2-2, in the eighth inning and helped stop the Brewers' five-game winning streak and his team's four-game losing skid.

"It's real big," Gathright said. "It's good to leave one place and go to another with a win. It's good to end on the victory."

The Royals loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th off Brewers reliever Jose Capellan (0-2), thanks to a pair of walks and a single. After David DeJesus lined out to first off reliever Chris Spurling, Gathright drew the run-scoring walk on a 3-1 pitch.

"I just knew he was going to throw sinker, sinker, sinker, so I just tried to lay off," Gathright said. "It's tough to see out there in the late innings during the day. (Once he got ahead in the count), you have the option of laying off and taking a few pitches. Mainly, I knew he wasn't going to try to throw me something I could hit."

Kansas City lefthander Jimmy Gobble retired the side in the 11th, striking out Prince Fielder for the final out, to earn his first save of the season.

"You want to make sure you get ahead in that situation, obviously you don't want to put anybody on by walking them," Gobble said. "They're a hot team. I just told myself to keep the ball down and make sure I pound the strike zone."

Royals reliever Dave Riske (1-2) pitched one inning, striking out one in the 10th, to pick up the win.

Milwaukee righthander Yovani Gallardo was in line for his second win until the Royals scored twice in the eighth off Derrick Turnbow. Pinch hitter Fernando Cortez walked to lead off the eighth and moved to third on DeJesus' single to center field. Gathright followed with an RBI groundout that tied the score, 2-2, and Mark Teahen singled to right to give the Royals the lead.

"We had three walks that really hurt us," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "The leadoff walk in the eighth, the leadoff walk in the 11th and the walk that scored the eventual winning run. You can live with the hits, you can't walk the leadoff hitter."

However, Corey Hart's solo home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning off Royals reliever Octavio Dotel tied the score at 3-3. It also extended Hart's career-high hitting streak to 11 games. Royals center fielder DeJesus was able to get a glove on it, the ball carried over the wall.

"We could have cashed it in when they came back," Royals manager Buddy Bell said, "but it was a nice win for us."

Gallardo, who lasted 6 1/3 innings in his debut against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, struck out eight Royals and allowed one run on five hits in seven innings. He did not factor in the decision.

"I just tried to relax and really go after it," Gallardo said. "I think I've been throwing the ball pretty good. I'll just keep trying to do my best and keep working hard to make every start better."

Odalis Perez allowed two runs on seven hits in five innings for the Royals. Zack Greinke pitched two scoreless innings in relief and Joakim Soria added one before Dotel blew the save.

"Odalis pitched great for us and kept us in the game," Gobble said. "Then Greinke came in and everybody that came in behind him did well. We just kind of followed Odalis."

Tony Graffanino, getting the start at first base for Fielder, gave the Brewers a 2-0 lead with his fifth home run of the season in the sixth off Perez.

The Royals cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh on Esteban German's one-out RBI single off Gallardo.