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Twins rough up Meche, send Royals to 6-4 loss
By BOB DUTTONThe Kansas City Star
Gil Meche gave back an early two-run lead in a 6-4 loss at the Metrodome.
It was a strange outing for Meche. He was dominant for extended stretches but paid dearly for an inability to handle former MVP Justin Morneau in RBI situations.
That was strange, too.
Morneau entered the game with just three singles in 17 career at-bats against Meche.
“He’s one guy who I don’t pay too much attention to,” Meche said. “I’ve always made real good pitches to him. I’m not saying he’s not a good hitter. He is, obviously. But I’ve always made good pitches to him and not had a lot of trouble.”
Until Saturday.
Morneau crushed a three-run homer in the fourth inning that gave the Twins a 3-2 lead. His RBI double fueled a three-run sixth that knocked out Meche.
The Royals acknowledged earlier in the week that they were lucky to get out of Detroit before the Tigers’ potent lineup stirred to life. Unfortunately, they seemed to have arrived in the Twin Cities just as Morneau is awakening from a zero-for-12 start to the season.
“A guy who is not hitting for average yet had a heck of a day against us,” manager Trey Hillman said. “He squared some balls up today. He had their first four RBIs, and that was the difference-maker.”
Morneau had an RBI single Friday in the Twins’ 4-3 victory before his muscle flex against Meche.
The Royals, 3-2, must now win today’s series finale to avoid a sweep and return home with a winning record. They open their home schedule Tuesday afternoon against the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium.
Minnesota starter Livan Hernandez, 2-0, threw a mere 74 pitches in seven innings before Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan closed out the victory. Nathan got his third save.
“Livan just kept us off-balance,” first baseman Ross Gload said. “We knew what he wanted to do. He knew what he wanted to do. And he won today. We weren’t surprised by what he did to us.”
Meche, 0-1, gave up six runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He yielded six or more runs in only four of his 34 starts in 2007.
“The first three innings couldn’t have been any better,” he said. “My stuff was there. My location was there. Then all of a sudden, I just started making mistakes.”
Gload and Alex Gordon each had two of the Royals’ nine hits. Mark Grudzielanek was zero for four after going eight for 16 in the first four games.
As in Friday’s loss, the Royals took the early two-run lead.
Gload opened the third inning with a single up the middle. He went to second on a balk and scored on Alberto Callaspo’s triple into the right-center gap.
Callaspo was nearly thrown out at third, but Mike Lamb couldn’t hold the throw. Callaspo then scored on Joey Gathright’s sacrifice fly to short left when catcher Joe Mauer couldn’t hold the throw from Delmon Young.
Meche seemed in command until Matt Tolbert opened the fourth by grounding a single up the middle. A walk to Mauer put runners at first and second before Morneau rocked a three-run homer to deep center.
“The pitch before (the homer),” Morneau said, “I was kicking myself because I didn’t swing at it. (Meche) gave me another one to hit. I don’t know if he thought I was thinking off-speed or whatever, but he gave me another one.
“It was pretty good, and I didn’t miss it.”
It got worse for Meche when Callaspo couldn’t hold Tolbert’s leadoff liner to short in the sixth. The result was a single, and Tolbert went to second on Mauer’s sacrifice bunt. Morneau then ripped an RBI double into the right-center gap for a 4-2 lead.
The Twins weren’t done.
Jason Kubel’s two-out broken-bat liner eluded Gload at first for an RBI single before Craig Monroe lined an RBI double into the left-center gap. That made it 6-2 and finished Meche.
The Royals finally stirred again against Hernandez in the seventh. José Guillen led off with a single and went to third on Gordon’s one-out single. Both runners scored when Miguel Olivo pumped a double into the right-center gap.
The chance for a bigger inning fizzled when Olivo was thrown out at third when trying to advance on Gload’s grounder to deep short. The Royals put the tying runs on base in the eighth against Guerrier and got the tying run to the plate in the ninth against Nathan.
Nothing to show for it, though.
“We’re scoring a couple of runs but not enough,” Gload said. “But we’re playing good games right now. That’s the important thing. We come out and get one (today) on getaway day, and it’s still a good road trip.”