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Cabrera shuts down Royals as Orioles win 5-2
By BOB DUTTONThe Kansas City Star
Cabrera is kryptonite for the Royals.
That’s the starting point in assessing Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards. The Royals did little against Cabrera after David DeJesus opened the game with a homer.
Mix in a disappointing outing from Gil Meche, a cup-clanging foul tip that knocked down — but didn’t knock out — catcher John Buck and, well, this was a clunker in almost every sense.
“It was one of those games,” Meche agreed, “that you try to forget about and keep moving forward. It started off bad and didn’t get any better.”
The Royals now need a victory tonight in the series finale to salvage a split in the four-game series. They’d be looking to avoid a sweep if not for their stunning rally in Monday’s opener.
About Cabrera, it’s inexplicable how he morphs into a Cy Young candidate whenever he encounters the Royals. He was 0-3 with four no-decisions and a 6.21 ERA in his seven previous starts.
“It’s good to have a good game,” he admitted. “It’s been a long time since I had one like that.”
Cabrera, 6-4, rolled through the Royals for his second complete game of the season by yielding just two runs and seven hits. He struck out two and walked none in a brisk 105-pitch effort.
“You’re probably not going to see Cabrera pitch any better than he did tonight,” Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. “I mean, he had command.”
Really? It sure seemed familiar to the Royals. Want to guess the opponent in Cabrera’s other complete game? Too easy, right? It was a 4-1 victory on May 8 at Kauffman Stadium.
Cabrera is now 5-0 with a 2.21 ERA in eight career starts against the Royals. Those three no-decisions also resulted in Baltimore victories. By comparison, he is 41-53 with a 5.09 ERA against the rest of baseball in his five-year career.
The Royals have no answers for any of this.
“He’s made some adjustments this year,” right fielder Mark Teahen said when pressed. “He doesn’t throw as hard, but he throws more strikes.”
That hardly explains his career-long domination. Then again, what does?
Buck’s anxious moment came in the fourth when Jay Payton tipped a 2-1 cutter into the danger zone. Buck spent a few moments on his knees in recovery but remained in the game. Afterward, he said he was fine.
Meche, 6-9, had won his last three starts but struggled from the outset. He gave up a two-run homer to Aubrey Huff in the first after being staked by DeJesus to a 1-0 lead. He yielded another run on three singles in the third after the Royals pulled even in the top of the inning.
“Just a bad outing,” Meche said. “I was leaving the ball up. I couldn’t put away guys. There’s not much to say about it. They got a lot of pitches to hit, and they hit them and hit them well.”
The Orioles supplied Cabrera with a three-run cushion by scoring twice in the fifth. That was plenty. The Royals succumbed weakly over the closing innings — 14 in a row were retired before DeJesus’ two-out single in the eighth.
“We didn’t make him work hard enough,” manager Trey Hillman said. “We didn’t make him throw enough pitches.”
Cabrera needed just four pitches in the seventh.
Ramon Hernandez had three of Baltimore’s 10 hits, including an RBI single in the two-run fifth. Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis scored twice. DeJesus had two singles in addition to his homer.
All footnotes.
“It’s a night for Cabrera,” Trembley said. “It’s his night.”
Against the Royals, always.