• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Royals-Braves Preview

Jun 20, 2010 - 4:05 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Kansas City (29-39) at Atlanta (40-28), 1:35 p.m. EDT

As owners of the best record in the NL, the Atlanta Braves are one of baseball's biggest surprises.

While veteran Troy Glaus is enjoying an unexpected comeback year and young Martin Prado is leading the majors in hits, maybe the biggest surprise for this first-place team is Kenshin Kawakami - a starter in the rotation since the beginning of the season - is still winless.

Glaus, Prado and the surging Braves look to continue their dominance at Turner Field, while Kawakami again tries to pick up his first victory in Sunday's finale against the Kansas City Royals.

Atlanta (41-28) defeated the Royals 5-4 on Saturday when Glaus led off the ninth inning with his 14th homer. The Braves won for the 13th time in 14 games at Turner Field and are a major league-best 28-10 since May 10.

"Every win is nice," Glaus said.

Glaus and Prado have played a big part in several of these victories.

Glaus, who missed nearly all of 2009 with a right shoulder injury, has eight homers and 23 RBIs in his last 20 games, and leads the NL with 55 RBIs.

Prado doubled and singled Saturday, becoming the first player to 100 hits. The Atlanta second baseman, who had 138 hits in his first full season in the majors last year, is 16 for 32 in his last seven games.

Atlanta has a 1 1/2-game lead over New York in the NL East, and could be ahead by more if it could get some wins with Kawakami (0-9, 4.42 ERA) on the mound. The Braves are 3-10 in Kawakami's starts compared to 38-18 in their other games.

Kawakami became the first starting pitcher in Braves franchise history to begin a season with nine straight defeats with Tuesday's 10-4 loss to Tampa Bay. The right-hander gave up seven hits in five innings and was charged with five runs, but only two were earned.

Kawakami, who has a 3.00 ERA in his last six starts, can't be blamed for all of this - his 2.95 run support average is third-worst in the NL.

"He's pitched so much better than his record," said catcher Brian McCann, who hit his seventh homer Saturday. "He's kept us in a ton of games."

Kawakami, whose spot in the rotation is in jeopardy with the injured Jair Jurrjens expected to come off the disabled list in about a week, will make his first appearance against the Royals (29-40).

Kansas City, which is trying to avoid being swept for the first time since dropping four straight in Texas from May 6-9, turns to Kyle Davies (4-5, 6.01), who is in the midst of his own funk.

In Tuesday's 15-7 win over Houston, Davis was knocked around for six runs and six hits - including four in a five-pitch span - over three innings. The right-hander has yielded at least five runs in each of his last four starts, causing his ERA to balloon nearly a run and a half from 4.53.

Davies, who spent his first two-plus seasons in the majors with Atlanta before being traded to Kansas City in 2007, has never faced the Braves. He is 7-9 with a 5.99 ERA in 25 career games at Turner Field.