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Royals rough up Angels, avert sweep

May 8, 2008 - 4:21 AM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Royals' sputtering offense came alive on Wednesday night.

The Royals, who rank last in the American League runs, erupted for a 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

David DeJesus hit a three-run homer and Alex Gordon, a two-run blast in a 14-hit attack for the Royals, who had scored just 10 runs in their previous five games and had 119 for the season.

Jose Guillen, who was in a 1-for-22 skid and was benched Tuesday, went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and three RBI. Mark Grudzielanek also went 3-for-3, raising his average to .302, and scored two runs. John Buck contributed two hits and a sacrifice fly.

"Overall our hitting, everyone did something today," DeJesus said. "It is good to see Jose back swinging it that good. And we got key hits. With guys on base, we were able to get that extra-base hit to score a couple.

"Today we stayed with our plan. (Angels starter Jered) Weaver likes to pick at the corners and throw that changeup. So we were like, make him get up on the plate and we can drive it. He started missing those corners, where he had to throw it over the plate. Once one guy started hitting, everyone started hitting."

The offensive splurge made it easy for righthander Zack Greinke (4-1) to pick up his first career victory against the Angels.

Greinke, who was 0-2 with an 8.49 ERA in three previous games against the Angels, gave up a run in the first on Vladimir Guerrero's run-producing single, but nothing else until the seventh.

"Zack was out there just throwing strikes, pounding the strike zone," DeJesus said. "When he had two strikes, he was able to throw that slider and get them chasing."

Greinke threw 27 pitches - 13 strikes - in the first inning when he walked two.

"I just wasn't throwing strikes to begin with and luckily got out of that," Greinke said. "I think I started to make an adjustment in about the third inning. I remember feeling like I was struggling to throw strikes the first two innings and then after that it got a lot better."

Weaver (2-5), who had allowed just seven earned runs in 32 2/3 innings and had a 1.93 ERA in six previous starts against the Royals, was roughed up for eight runs and 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings before being replaced by Chris Bootcheck.

"He threw a couple of breaking balls that just rolled into the zone," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "There was life in his fastball, but just getting ahead was a problem. You need to create a margin of error and to do that you've got to have that breaking ball. At times he had it, but it needs to be more consistent.

"He's working hard and understands what piece of the puzzle he brings. We have a lot of confidence in Jered. He showed us a lot of good stuff in the spring. He's carried some of those things forward and some things he's not as consistent as he needs to be, but he'll find it."

It was the shortest outing of the season for Weaver, whose ERA ballooned to 5.59.

"It was just one of those days," Weaver said. "What can you do? If you can't command the ball, you're not going to get too many people out. I just couldn't put the ball where I wanted to. I left the ball up and they hit it when it was up.

"I said last year that I was going to pitch my game until people started to figure me out, then I have to change my game. It seems like people are starting to figure me out, so I may have to make some changes, make some adjustments. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm just not throwing the ball real well."

The Royals scored all their runs in the first four innings. The nine runs and 14 hits matched their season highs.

"I would think that should build the confidence level," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "As always the objective and the goal is to repeat it. We had a couple of crooked numbers on the board tonight. We've done it in a few other games, but we haven't done it with any regularity. Now we've got to try to do with some regularity and that will build confidence and that will obviously make us more productive offensively."

Greinke, who is second in the American League with a 1.80 ERA, limited the Angels to five hits and three runs, striking out eight and walking two in seven innings.

Greinke did allow a two-run homer to Mike Napoli, his eighth, in the seventh inning. Napoli had three hits.

"The run support was great," Greinke said. "You could attack guys. You give up a two-run home run and it is nothing. They were hitting it at guys when I was giving them pitches to hit."

Red-hot Garret Anderson homered to lead off the ninth off Yasuhiko Yabuta, the third Kansas City pitcher. Anderson, who also tripled in the fourth, had three home runs, seven RBIs and six hits in his final nine at-bats of this series.

The Angels' loss snapped a four-game winning streak, which was their longest of the season.