<table> </table> PEORIA, Ariz. | Six runs before he ever throws a pitch in the first inning? Things are already turning around for Gil Meche.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a new year,&#8221; center fielder David DeJesus said. &#8220;We gave him nothing last year. Maybe we&#8217;ll give him something this year. He deserves it.&#8221;</p><p>Meche made his spring debut Friday by working two scoreless innings in a 13-9 victory over the San Diego Padres. He pitched around a leadoff double in the first inning and a two-out double in the second.</p><p>&#8220;He looked great,&#8221; catcher John Buck said. &#8220;Right where he needs to be at this point.&#8221;</p><p>Well, now, Meche will argue he threw some suspect curveballs. But, yes, he was generally pleased.</p><p>&#8220;Two innings, no runs,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I gave up two hits, two doubles on curveballs. Obviously, I see a lot I have to work on. You get each (start) under your belt and try to keep plugging away. It was a good day.&#8221;</p><p>Not for everyone.</p><p>Jimmy Gobble and Joakim Soria, in particular, got cuffed around. The Royals led 9-1 at one point before the Padres mounted a comeback once the teams began clearing the benches.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not too fired up about giving up nine runs,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said. &#8220;We gave them extra outs. That&#8217;s the thing that bothers me the most. It wasn&#8217;t a lack of effort. It was a lack of focus. So, we&#8217;ve got to focus better.&#8221;</p><p>And Meche?</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really pleased with the way he pitched out of a jam in the first inning,&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;Overall, it was a very good first outing. I know that he can command the fastball better than that.&#8221;</p><p>The wider perspective to Meche is he sees progress all around as he heads into his second season with the club.</p><p>&#8220;Are we better than last year?&#8221; he asked. &#8220;You bet. I totally believe we are. Would we have been better this year if we didn&#8217;t get anybody in the off-season? Yes, I think we still would have been better.</p><p>&#8220;Our young guys who came through in the second half, I just think those guys made huge leaps as far as becoming big-league players. But we did make some good moves in the off-season.&#8221;</p><p>Specifically, Meche points to an improved bullpen in acquiring veterans Ron Mahay and Yasuhiko Yabuta. He is even more enthusiastic about Jose Guillen&#8217;s potential impact on the offense.</p><p>&#8220;Even though we had a good bullpen last year,&#8221; Meche said, &#8220;I think we stepped it up a notch with more experience. That always helps a bullpen later in games.</p><p>&#8220;And Guillen is going to be huge. He&#8217;s going to change the whole lineup. He&#8217;s going to change, from a pitching standpoint, how the opposition sees our lineup when he&#8217;s in the middle of our lineup.</p><p>&#8220;Plus, he helps everybody else. He makes guys pitch everybody different.&#8221;</p><p>If so, nobody figures to benefit more than Meche, who suffered the worst run support last year among regular American League starters. Meche never griped, publicly anyway, at the lack of support.</p><p>So it was easy to understand the dugout banter that accompanied his wry complaint during that six-run first &#8212; that it was taking so long that he probably ought to go to the bullpen to warm up again.</p><p>&#8220;We told him,&#8221; first baseman Ross Gload said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t start complaining about run support now.&#8221;</p><p>No complaints.</p><p>&#8220;It was fun,&#8221; Meche said. &#8220;We&#8217;re a ton better. There is a lot of excitement in camp. There is energy. There is laughter. Trey hits on it every day. We&#8217;re going to have as much fun as we can.&#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> for continuous updates from Royals&#8217; spring training, including photos, video and Sam Mellinger&#8217;s &#8220;Ball Star&#8221; blog on the Royals and major-league baseball.</p><p></div>