• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Meche pitches superbly as Royals cruise past Twins

Sep 12, 2007 - 10:26 PM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Gil Meche finally received some run support.

Meche pitched 6 2/3 effective innings as the Kansas City Royals posted a 6-3 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday.

David DeJesus homered and drove in three runs and Mark Teahen also homered and scored twice for Kansas City, which snapped a season high-tying seven-game losing streak.

Meche earned his first win since July 20, yielding two runs, five hits and a walk, while striking out seven. The righthander, who threw 71 of his 102 pitches for strikes, retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced - allowing just a fourth inning leadoff double to Jason Tyner.

"It was good to get Gil early run support," DeJesus said. "We haven't done that pretty much most of the times he's pitched this year. I think it helped him to be able to get after guys."

Despite going 0-6 in his last nine outings, the 29-year-old Meche had allowed only two runs in six of his last eight starts. However, the Royals tallied just 19 runs in his starts, including just eight in the half-dozen defeats. The seven-year veteran also received a major league-worst 3.85 runs of support through his last start.

"For a starting pitcher you want to win games, but it's a little different," Meche said. "I've been pitching well, so I could kind of swallow it a little bit easier. It's been a battle all season. I haven't had good run support. I'm not going to look at the guys any different. They've played good ball all year."

Meche lost his shutout bid in the seventh when Jason Kubel and Torii Hunter hit back-to-back doubles to start the inning. A two-out double by Chris Heintz gave Minnesota its second run.

This time Meche got plenty of runs as Billy Butler's run-scoring single and Ross Gload's sacrifice fly gave him a 2-0 advantage after the first.

"Any pitcher is going to tell you if you get a lead early in the game you're going to relax," Meche said. "Every pitch I threw was basically a strike out of my hand. You realize you could pitch to contact a little bit more and not care if you give up a home run. You've got a four-run lead to work with. In the seventh inning, I got a little tired and gave up a couple of runs."

DeJesus tripled in a run in the second off Twins starter Carlos Silva (11-14), who departed after two innings with a right groin strain.

"We're not sure about Carlos' next start," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We'll have to wait and see how he is. He felt it grab a little in the first inning. He slipped a little or stepped in a hole or something. We went out there to talk to him and he said he couldn't get the ball down in the zone.

"After he came out in the second, we told him we're not going to let him hurt himself. We were trying to prevent injury. It's not too bad."

The righthander allowed three runs and five hits in two frames.

"I slipped a little bit and felt a little pull," Silva said. "It's not frustrating. It's something that happened, that's all."

Reliever Kevin Slowey replaced Silva to start the third and promptly gave up a leadoff blast to Teahen to make it 4-0.

The Royals upped their advantage to 6-0 in the sixth when DeJesus homered with John Buck aboard.

Kansas City won its 63rd game, which means the club cannot reach the century mark in losses.

"I never thought this team would lose a 100," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "I thought we were going to be a better team."

The Royals had lost 100 games in the past three seasons and in four of their past five years.

"We can get the 100-loss (stigma) out of the way," DeJesus said. "We knew we had 62 wins. You can see the signs of the fans up the stands. We're not worrying about that anymore."

Pinch hitter Brian Buscher hit a run-scoring single in the ninth for the Twins, who lost for the first time in four games.