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Hochevar attempts to silence A's bats

Apr 20, 2008 - 1:55 PM Kansas City (9-9) at Oakland (11-8) 4:05 pm EDT

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) - After seeing two of their brightest young pitchers roughed up by the Oakland Athletics, the Kansas City Royals will turn to a former No. 1 overall draft pick on Sunday.

Luke Hochevar will make just his second career start when the Royals look to salvage a win as they wrap up a three-game set with the A's.

Brian Bannister and Zack Greinke both came into the Oakland series with 3-0 records and solid ERAs, but both lasted only five innings as the A's offense posted 19 runs and 31 hits in two wins this weekend, including Saturday's 6-5 victory.

Hochevar, who is replacing the injured John Bale in the rotation, was the first overall pick in the 2006 draft. The righthander barely lost out of a spot in the rotation in Spring Training and carried that over to his short stint with Class AAA Omaha, where he went 1-1 with a 2.60 ERA in three starts.

While he made his major league debut in September, he did not pitch more than 3 1/3 innings in any of his four outings, including his only major league start vs. Cleveland, when he allowed two runs over three frames in a loss on September 30.

Oakland will counter with its own 24-year-old in Dana Eveland (1-1, 2.00), who will be facing the Royals for the first time in his career. In Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, the lefthander suffered his first poor outing of the season, surrendering three earned runs on five hits and three walks over 4 2/3 innings.