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Hochevar, Butler help Royals top Indians

May 4, 2008 - 4:39 AM By Todd Krepop PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - Luke Hochevar had a good feeling that his team would be victorious.

Hochevar pitched six strong innings and the Kansas City Royals rallied to defeat the Cleveland Indians, 4-2, on Saturday night.

The rookie righthander's night ended with his team trailing 2-0 entering the seventh, but Billy Butler drove in the winning run as the Royals scored four times in the seventh inning to overcome C.C. Sabathia and the Indians' bullpen.

"I knew something good was going to happen," Hochevar said. "The guys were coming in and saying, 'I can see (Sabathia) good."

Sabathia, who had allowed only one run in his previous 20 innings, worked out of jams in the first, fourth, and sixth innings, but Kansas City got to the burly lefthander in the seventh.

With his team trailing 2-0, John Buck started the rally with a double to left and Tony Pena reached on a bunt single. David DeJesus followed with an RBI single to plate Buck. Sabathia (1-5) finally recorded an out on Mark Grudzielanek's sacrifice bunt, but Alex Gordon blooped a single to tie the game at 2-2 and end Sabathia's night.

"The at-bat by John Buck took a lot out of C.C.," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "That got us going."

"They made some adjustments and started hitting the ball hard," Sabathia said.

Masa Kobayashi came in to relieve Sabathia and retired Jose Guillen on a fly ball to right, but Butler knocked a single up the middle on a 2-2 pitch to give the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Mark Teahen drove in the fourth run - which were all charged to Sabathia - with an RBI single off of reliever Rafael Perez.

"Four runs in one inning is a big inning for us," Butler said. "(Sabathia) was pretty tough. We have faced him enough that we were due."

Ron Mahay and Ramon Ramirez each pitched a scoreless inning and Joakim Soria pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in as many chances.

Hochevar (2-1) held the Indians to two runs on only three hits. He struck out six and walked four to pick up his second consecutive win.

"Early on, I didn't feel like I have the command," Hochevar said. "In the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, I stayed in my delivery and my command was better."

Sabathia has now lost five of his first seven games. He yielded 10 hits while striking out four batters.

"I take full responsibility for this," Sabathia said. "We had the lead. It's my job to shut it down and get it to the back end of the bullpen. I didn't do that."

Grady Sizemore had the Indians' lone RBI with a solo home run in the fifth. Cleveland scored its other run on a wild pitch and has scored three runs or less in five of its last six games.

"There's not much you can say that hasn't been said (about our hitting)," Indians manager Eric Wedge said. "Where the frustration lies with me is we don't have a bunch of rookies out there. We have guys who are deep enough in their careers that this shouldn't be happening."