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DeJesus powers Royals over Diamondbacks

Jun 16, 2008 - 1:06 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- David DeJesus belted his first career grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs in support of Gil Meche as the Kansas City Royals posted an 8-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon.

Meche (4-8) was strong into the eighth inning for the Royals, who pounded out 14 hits and used a five-run fourth inning en route to the win.

After Meche's RBI single started the scoring in the fourth, DeJesus ripped his seventh homer of the season, a towering blast off Arizona starter Micah Owings (6-5) to make it 6-0. The center fielder added an RBI double in the sixth.

"Gil was able to get his ball off the glove and was able to beat it out. So, I was able to get a chance," DeJesus said. "He (Owings) threw a changeup down on the first pitch and I was ready and, when I saw a fastball, I was able to get a good swing on it and it went out."

In the second year of five-year, $55 million contract, Meche carried a no-hitter into the fifth, which was broken up by Conor Jackson, who stroked a single to center to lead off the frame.

Meche, who struck out the side in the first and retired the first 12 hitters he faced, allowed three runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings. He had just one walk and a season-high 10 strikeouts en route to his first win since May 15.

"I had good stuff tonight. I was able to stay ahead, curveballs for strikes and had put-away-curveballs," Meche said. "I kept pounding the zone, kept the ball down and goods things happen when you do that."

With his team leading by six runs, Meche's only extended trouble of the day came in the fifth after Jackson's single.

"We had a lot of offense it was well pitched game by Gil," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "He ran into trouble that one inning with minimal damage, it could have been worse. I am very pleased to see the offense keep going.

"Micah Owings left some balls over the plate and that helped us out a bit, but we took advantage of it."

The red-hot Mark Reynolds walked, setting up Chris Young's fielder's choice groundball which led to a throwing error by Royals third baseman Alex Gordon. Jeff Salazar added an RBI double to make it 6-2 before Meche induced a groundout by Chris Synder and struck out Owings to end the threat.

After breezing through the sixth and seventh, Meche got the first out of the eighth before allowing a single to Alex Romero. He was removed in favor of Ramon Ramirez, who got the final two outs of the frame. Jeff Fulchino hurled a scoreless ninth to finish the game.

Owings allowed seven runs and eight hits while striking out four and walking two. He got himself in trouble right away in the first thanks to DeJesus, who singled to lead off the game, moved to third on a walk and groundball and scored on a wild pitch.

"I am kind of scratching my head. For the most part, my stuff felt better than it has in a while," Owings said. "The hits that they got, I could have made my pitches better. If I make better pitches, it is a different story."

After a hot start, Owings suffered through his fourth straight rocky outing for the Diamondbacks, who suffered their second consecutive loss to the Royals after a 1-0 win in Friday's series opener.

"I really thought that after New York we would come in and, at least offensively, be a little bit better," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "The last two games all the way around we weren't very good. Our pitching wasn't very good and we didn't swing the bat well and that usually is not a good recipe to win."