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Royals eyes first sweep of Rangers since '03

Apr 19, 2009 - 6:42 AM By Alan Ferguson Stats Writer

Kansas City (7-4) at Texas (4-7), 3:05 p.m. EDT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Stellar starting pitching is keeping the Kansas City Royals' early-season success going.

The Royals will look for another strong effort on the mound from Kyle Davies in Sunday's series finale in Texas, where they'll aim for their first road sweep of the Rangers in six seasons.

Gil Meche pitched six scoreless innings in Friday night's 12-3 series-opening victory. Zack Greinke followed with a seven-hit shutout Saturday night, extending his personal scoreless streak to 34 innings dating to last season.

"It kind of blew me away," Greinke said after the 2-0 win. "I think it's almost impossible to do 34 scoreless innings in these days. I would have taken the 20 as a career high."

Now, Davies (1-0, 2.13 ERA) has a chance to give the Royals (7-4) their first sweep of the Rangers (4-7) in Arlington since July 11-13, 2003.

The right-hander, who pitched seven scoreless innings in his season debut April 9 against the Chicago White Sox, earned his first win of the season Tuesday night by giving up three runs over 5 2-3 innings in a 9-3 home victory over Cleveland.

Davis will need to end his struggles in Texas, where he's lost all three of his previous starts while compiling an 8.03 ERA and .345 opponent batting average.

Despite hitting only .238 on the season, the Royals have outscored opponents 54-17 in winning five of their last six. Second baseman Alberto Callaspo has a hit in seven of his nine games and is 5-for-7 in this weekend's series.

Callaspo hasn't faced scheduled Rangers starter Vicente Padilla (1-1, 10.00), but Kansas City center fielder Coco Crisp is 6-for-12 against the veteran right-hander.

Padilla is looking to rebound from one of the worst outings of his career. He gave up seven runs, 11 hits and one walk in 3 1-3 innings of Monday night's 10-9 home loss to Baltimore, five days after getting credit for a win over Cleveland despite yielding three runs in only 5 2-3 innings.

Padilla is 2-1 with a 4.79 ERA in four career starts against Kansas City, with the wins coming in the two most recent outings.

Texas has allowed 62 runs while losing seven of its last eight. Those numbers would look even worse were it not for Kevin Millwood, who pitched a complete game Saturday but took the tough-luck loss against Greinke.

"Our ace on the mound and doing what we need him to do, we've got to get him a run," outfielder Marlon Byrd told the team's official Web site. "Greinke had our number, but we've got to step it up."

Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler is hitting .565 (13-for-23) over his last five games.

Win a victory Sunday, the Royals would top their win total against the Rangers from all of last season, when Texas took seven of nine meetings between the clubs.