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Royals look to avoid sweep at home

May 27, 2007 - 1:04 PM Seattle (23-22) at Kansas City (19-31), 2:10 pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Home field hasn't been much of an advantage for the Kansas City Royals this season.

The Royals look to improve their American League-worst 9-17 home record and avoid a three-game series sweep when they host the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.

Kansas City will turn to starter Odalis Perez (2-4, 5.20 ERA) who has pitched well recently, though he hasn't won since April 25. In his last three starts, the lefthander has posted a 2.37 ERA and lasted six or more innings. Perez is 1-2 with a 5.72 ERA in five starts in Kansas City this season.

Jarrod Washburn (4-4, 3.15) gets the starts for the Mariners, who have won 20 of their last 26 games against the Royals. The lefthander has been up-and-down lately but is coming off a solid win against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday, in which he allowed one earned run in 6 2/3 innings.

Prior to that start, he had his worst outing of the year as he allowed six runs in six innings during a loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Oddly enough, in the start before that, he turned in one of his best efforts of the year, holding the New York Yankees scoreless over eight innings.

The Mariners have outscored the Royals 19-3 in the first two games of this series.

Kenji Johjima highlighted Saturday's 9-1 Mariners victory with a grand slam in the fourth inning. Richie Sexson added a three-run blast in the ninth, however his batting average through 43 games continues to be below the "Mendoza Line" at .182.

Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 19 games and is batting .429 (36-for-84) with two home runs and 18 runs over that span. This is the 23rd hitting streak of 10-or-more games during his career, the most among active players. His career-high hitting streak was 23 games, set in 2001.