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Davies sharp as Royals baffle Mariners

Sep 16, 2008 - 3:58 AM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Kyle Davies pitched eight scoreless innings as the Kansas City Royals secured their fourth straight win, a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.

Davies held the Mariners to four hits - all singles - and matched his career high with eight strikeouts without a walk. It was the first time in 19 starts this season that Davies did not walk a batter. Davies (7-7), who lowered his ERA to 4.32, threw 66 of his 98 pitches for strikes.

Joakim Soria worked a flawless ninth to log his 38th save in 41 opportunities.

"I'm more proud of the zero walks than the eight strikeouts," Davies said. "I've struck out eight before, but I believe this is the first time this year that I haven't walked a hitter. No walks also keeps your pitch-count down. This is the deepest I've pitched into a game with the Royals."

While the Royals collected 12 hits and should have scored more runs if not for some base running gaffes, Davies was the star of the game.

"Most importantly, you've got to start with the job Davies did on the mound," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "For the most part, he commanded his fastball the best we've seen. I felt like that was set up because of the utilization of his breaking ball, especially his curveball. The curveball just helped set everything up."

Davies, who was acquired in a July 31, 2007, trade from the Atlanta Braves for Octavio Dotel, called it his best game "pitching-wise without a doubt" in his 30 starts with Kansas City.

"I got two double plays that helped keep the pitch count down and some good plays behind me," Davies said.

"Davies worked his fastball and got ahead and changed speeds," said Mariners left fielder Raul Ibanez, who went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. "He had good stuff. He located his fastball and had good complimentary pitches to go with it."

The Royals, who had scored 29 runs at Cleveland in winning their previous three games, scored single runs in the first, fourth and seventh innings.

Mike Aviles, who singled in the first and went to third on Ryan Shealy's single, scored the first run on Carlos Silva's wild pitch. The Royals lost another run that inning when Shealy apparently had scored from second base on Mark Teahen's single but, after an appeal, was ruled out for missing third base.

"I must have apologized to Mark 10 times for costing him an RBI," Shealy said. "I'm glad it didn't comeback to haunt us as Kyle pitched great."

In the fourth inning, Teahen's single scored Jose Guillen, who had two hits to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games.

Pinch runner Tony Pena Jr. scored on David DeJesus' infield single in the seventh for the final run in the frame. The Royals could have had another run that inning, but Ichiro Suzuki threw out Alex Gordon at home as he attempted to score from first on Alberto Callaspo's double to right.

Mariners righthander Carlos Silva (6-15) now has lost six straight in his 10 starts since a victory over the San Diego Padres on June 28. Silva, who has won just once since April 17, yielded two runs and eight hits, while striking out four without a walk.

"He got a few groundballs and gave up a couple of hits," Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said. "They got a few to fall in. A few balls bounced away from us. It's kind of been like that for us all year. He gave us a chance to win."

Seattle has lost five in a row to start an 11-game, 11-day road trip.

The Mariners did not have a baserunner until Jose Lopez led off fifth with a single. He had two of the four hits for Seattle, which got runners past second base only in the sixth, when Lopez and Kenji Johjima both did so.

"We seem to be hitting a lot 'at-em' balls," Riggleman said. "Lopez keeps stroking line drives out there. There are no excuses. We have got to get better. Top to bottom, we've got to get better."