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Greinke, Royals shut out White Sox

Sep 20, 2007 - 10:27 PM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Zack Greinke outdueled Jon Garland as the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-0, on Thursday afternoon.

The righthander allowed just two hits in eight strong innings as the Royals (66-86) climbed out of last place and ahead of the White Sox (66-87) in the American League Central Division.

Greinke (7-6) yielded only a fourth-inning double and a seventh-inning single en route to just his third win as a starter this year. The 23-year-old did not walk a batter, went to a three-ball count just once and set a career high with 10 strikeouts.

"This is the reason we coach," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "When kids like Zack go through what he's been through, then come out and show how they've figured things out, that's what we coach for. That's the best. I couldn't be happier for him."

Royals catcher John Buck knew early that his batterymate was in command.

"It didn't matter what I put down, it was in the strike zone or close," he said. "Zack was pretty locked in and on the attack the whole time. He changed speeds well with his breaking ball, the curveball, so not everything was hard. It was not all maximum effort, and I think that saved his arm."

Greinke was in line for the first shutout of his career, but after tossing 101 pitches, he gave way to reliever Joakim Soria, who pitched a perfect ninth for his 17th save.

"He could have gone the last inning," Bell said. "He was throwing 94, 95 (miles per hour) without any real effort. But we had predetermined that 100 (pitches) was the limit."

Jerry Owens - who doubled to lead off the fourth - was the only Chicago batter to get past first base in the game. Owens was stranded at third when Greinke struck out Jim Thome and Paul Konerko to end the inning.

"That was huge for us today," Buck said. "Getting Thome and Konerko was huge."

Greinke said his time in the bullpen helped prepare him for difficult situations.

"That's one of the things I figured out a little when I was in the bullpen, how to get out of jams," he said. "I learned not to try to do too much and to just trust your stuff. I really had to bear down against Thome. He could have given them two runs in a hurry."

Greinke's effort overshadowed a solid outing from Garland (9-13), who limited the Royals to three runs and six hits in the eight-inning complete game. The righthander did not issue a walk and struck out four.

"I was throwing everything for a strike," Garland said. "I'm not very overpowering, but when I can throw all my pitches and keep those guys off-balance, they couldn't sit on one pitch."

It was the third straight loss for the 27-year-old despite the fact he has allowed only four earned runs in 23 innings during that span.

The Royals strung together just enough offense to win the game, which lasted just 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Buck and Tony Pena opened the sixth inning with back-to-back doubles to plate the game's first run. Pena later scored on Esteban German's sacrifice fly before padding the lead in the eighth with a sacrifice fly of his own.