• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Greinke solid as Royals blank White Sox

Apr 9, 2009 - 3:57 AM CHICAGO (AP) -- Zack Greinke wouldn't give in. He kept going for the corners instead of going after the hitters, and by his own admission, was "too fine."

Or was he perfectly fine?

Greinke pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Kansas City bullpen was perfect Wednesday night, giving the Royals a 2-0 win over the Chicago White Sox.

Greinke (1-0) struck out seven and walked three, winning for the first time in seven career decisions at U.S. Cellular Field.

"I treated every batter like I didn't want him to get a hit on me, maybe was a little too fine," Greinke said. "I didn't give in one pitch the whole game. If I threw a fastball, I wanted it to be right on the corner, knee high -- or inside corner, waist to stomach high. I was trying to make the perfect pitch too much."

Relievers Juan Cruz and Joakim Soria retired all nine batters to preserve the Royals' first victory of the season. In Tuesday's opener, Chicago rallied to win when Jim Thome hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning off reliever Kyle Farnsworth.

Mike Aviles doubled and scored in the third inning, then singled and scored in the fifth for the Royals. That was enough for Greinke, who simply outpitched Gavin Floyd (0-1).

A 13-game winner last season, Greinke left after Jermaine Dye led off the seventh with a single. Cruz set down Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez before retiring the side in the eighth.

Soria pitched the ninth for his first save after converting 42 of 45 opportunities last year, and the Royals got what second baseman Mark Teahen hopes is "a shot of our maturity as a team."

"We can take a loss like yesterday and come back today and play good quality baseball and win the ballgame," he said.

The White Sox wasted a solid performance by Floyd, who allowed six hits and struck out nine in seven innings. The team leader with 17 wins last season, he retired the first eight batters before Aviles doubled off the center-field wall and Coco Crisp drove a ground-rule double to the warning track in center.

It became 2-0 when Aviles led off the fifth with a single and scored from third on Mark Teahen's single.

"It's not like they're a powerhouse by any means, but it seems like they know how to play baseball pretty well," Floyd said.

Manager Ozzie Guillen added: "They're going to give a lot of people headaches."

The 25-year-old Greinke eased any concerns after allowing 29 earned runs in 28 1-3 innings during spring training.

The only hits he allowed were two singles by Dye and one by Pierzynski. Not bad, considering Greinke was 0-6 with a 7.78 ERA in his first eight appearances -- including six starts -- at U.S. Cellular Field.

Then again, expectations are high in Kansas City. And Greinke is a big reason why. He went 13-10 last season while setting career-highs in strikeouts (183) and innings (202 1-3) and posting the best ERA (3.47) by a Royals starter in 11 years.

"This year, our team's solid all the way through," Greinke said. "We don't have a super-strength anywhere, but we don't have a weakness."