Meche, Royals shut down Rangers in 12-3 victory

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Gil Meche didn't look like somebody who hates pitching in Rangers Ballpark, and his Kansas City Royals teammates certainly didn't seem like the worst-hitting team in the majors.

Meche pitched into the seventh without allowing a run, Mark Teahen assumed his new role by going 5-for-6 with a homer and the Royals beat the Texas Rangers 12-3 on Friday night.

"I hate pitching in this ballpark against any lineup. It's probably my worst ballpark in the league to pitch in," said Meche, who had an 8.10 ERA his previous eight starts in Texas. "I just tried to forget about it tonight. ... It was also good to get an early four-run lead."

Teahan led off the second with his homer and Coco Crisp hit a three-run shot later in the inning off Matt Harrison (0-2). The Royals led 12-0 before Hank Blalock and Marlon Byrd hit back-to-back homers in the eighth.

The Rangers were coming off a 19-6 victory over Baltimore on Wednesday night, a game in which they had 19 hits while Ian Kinsler went 6-for-6 with a cycle.

The Rangers managed only six singles off Meche (1-0), who struck out six before being pulled after consecutive hits to start the seventh. The right-hander, 11-3 with a 3.09 ERA in his final 21 starts last season, has a 2.25 ERA in three starts this season.

"He was throwing everything for strikes, the changeup, curveball, fastball," Michael Young said. "he was moving in and out, and kept us off balance."

Jamey Wright gave up a one-out single to No. 9 hitter Elvis Andrus to load the bases before he struck out Kinsler. It was then Young's turn to bat, but manager Ron Washington instead inserted Omar Vizquel.

Young knew Vizquel was going to replace him at third base the following inning, but Young figured he'd bat until he was told otherwise just before going to the on-deck circle.

"I'm not going to question it," said Young, the five-time All-Star. "It's Wash's call."

Washington said he wanted to get Young and All-Star center fielder Josh Hamilton a break in a lopsided game. David Murphy took over in center in the eighth.

But Murphy batted in Hamilton's spot leading off an inning, instead of with the bases loaded like Vizquel did for Young.

"When you look at it the way you're looking at it, I have to take the blame if you think it was the wrong thing," Washington said. "But right there, I told Vizquel that he is going in before we even got started (that inning), and told him he was going to get the at-bat."

Vizquel hit an inning-ending foul pop on the first pitch.

The Royals, who entered the game with a majors-worst .216 average, had 19 hits. Alberto Callaspo had three singles and scored twice, while Mike Jacobs homered and had four RBIs.

"If we can slug it the way we did today, that's good to see," Hillman said.

One of the singles off Meche was Kinsler's bunt leading off the third. Including his walk in the first, Kinsler reached base nine consecutive plate appearances before a deep flyout to center in the fifth.

Teahen, taking over as the primary third baseman with Alex Gordon out for at least 10 weeks after hip surgery Friday, had the first five-hit game for Kansas City since Mike Sweeney on July 9, 2005.

Callaspo made a pair of nifty defensive plays in the sixth.

With a runner a first, he made a diving stop of Hamilton's grounder up the middle, then was face down on the dirt when he flipped the ball over his shoulder to shortstop Mike Aviles covering second base for the forceout. Callaspo then had to make a full extension over his head to stab Byrd's liner to end the inning.

Kansas City started the seventh against reliever Willie Eyre with consecutive doubles by Teahen, Jacobs and John Buck. After Callaspo's flyout, Willie Bloomquist greeted reliever Josh Rupe with an RBI double to make it 9-0. Jacobs added his third homer, a three-run shot, in the eighth.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia led off the ninth with his second homer, coming after a 2-for-26 slide in which he struck out 12 times. He stuck out his first three at-bats Friday.

Notes: Texas has multiple homers in all seven home games this season, matching its longest such streak in Rangers Ballpark history. ... Kinsler is sending a bat he used during in his cycle game to baseball's Hall of Fame, but will keep the jersey he wore. "It will be real cool to have it on my wall," Kinsler said. ... Ryozo Kato, commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, will visit Rangers Ballpark on Monday. ... Jacobs had to step out of the box during his at-bat in the seventh when some fireworks -- part of the postgame show -- prematurely went off.

Royals' Gordon out at least 10-12 weeks -- Third baseman Alex Gordon is expected to be out of Kansas City's lineup for at least two months after having surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip.

The surgery was performed Friday in Colorado and Royals manager Trey Hillman said the recovery time is 10 to 12 weeks.

"We want him to be safe, something we can take care of at the young age of 25," Hillman said. "Hopefully, he'll never have this recur again."

Gordon, the No. 2 overall pick in 2005, had only two hits in 21 at-bats the first seven games this season before opting to have the surgery. He hit .253 with 31 home runs and 119 RBIs in 285 games the past two seasons.

"The original diagnosis was 'play as tolerated' with no further chance of damage," Hillman said. "I don't think anybody would second-guess the pain toleration of an Alex Gordon. We all know he's extremely tough. But we wanted to see definitively what threshold he could take it to. But after a few days of playing, there was a lot of discomfort."

Mark Teahen took over as the starting third baseman Friday night in the opener of the Royals' weekend series at Texas.

Teahen started his fourth game in right field Wednesday, and this season became the first Royals player since Bill Pecota in 1991 to appear at four different positions in the first six games.

Hillman said Teahen, whom the Royals considered trading during the offseason, will be the third baseman for the "majority of the time" while Gordon is out.

"I was always thrilled we hung onto Mark Teahen," Hillman said. "Now that this has happened, it plays out with more magnitude."

The Royals recalled outfielder Mitch Maier from Triple-A Omaha to fill Gordon's spot on the roster. Willie Bloomquist started in right field against the Rangers.

Two Royals prospects suspended for drug tests -- Kansas City Royals minor leaguers Juan Rivera and Joseph Billick were suspended for 50 games Friday after testing positive for performance-enhancing substances under baseball's minor league drug program.

Rivera, a shortstop with Class A Burlington, tested positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, the commissioner's office said. Billick, a catcher with Class A Wilmington, tested positive for metabolites of Stanozolol. Both suspensions were effective immediately.

Four of the 10 players suspended this year for violating baseball's minor league drug program are Royals prospects.

Cubs 8, Cardinals 7

CHICAGO -- All Alfonso Soriano needed to see was a pitch to his liking, and that's a pretty broad category.

After striking out three times earlier Friday, Soriano golfed Chris Perez's low slider into the left-field bleachers for a two-run, eighth-inning homer to give the Chicago Cubs an 8-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Perez was kicking himself for not throwing the 1-2 slider in the dirt -- and that might have been his only chance to keep Soriano from going deep. A notorious bad-ball hitter, Soriano has five homers in Chicago's first 10 games and two game-winning shots this week.

"It was very low but I like low pitches and I put a good swing on it," Soriano said. Then he laughed and added: "Well, not only low. I like everything. High. Inside. Away. Just throw something close to home plate and I'll hit it."

Perhaps, but he couldn't hit anything in his first three at-bats. He fanned each time on pitches thrown well out of the strike zone by P.J. Walters, who was making his major-league debut in place of injured St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter.

"I don't know this guy," Soriano said. "I think I was too excited. I have to learn they don't want to throw too many strikes to me, especially their first time in the big leagues. I have to calm down."

Mission accomplished in the eighth.

"Sori's always dangerous, no matter what the situation is or what he's done to that point," teammate Derrek Lee said. "He's able to forget about his bad at-bats, and that's not easy. Guys don't like to strike out and a lot of guys shorten their swing. Not Sori. He goes for the kill."

Soriano also beat Milwaukee with a two-run, ninth-inning homer last Sunday.

In losing for only the second time in nine games, the Cardinals couldn't score the tying run after Carlos Marmol opened the ninth inning by walking Colby Rasmus and hitting Albert Pujols with a pitch.

Ryan Ludwick, who had hit two home runs off of Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano, struck out, and pinch-hitter Khalil Greene grounded into a game-ending double play.

"I didn't get the job done, that's all there is to it," Ludwick said. "He threw three straight fastballs right by me."

Brian Barden had given the Cardinals a 6-5 lead in the sixth with his second homer in two days against the Cubs. Ludwick's second homer of the game made it 7-5 in the seventh.

Aramis Ramirez pulled the Cubs within a run in the seventh with an RBI single, his third hit of the day.

All of St. Louis' runs came against Zambrano, who fired his glove to the ground in frustration after allowing a single by Skip Schumaker during the Cardinals' four-run third.

Even with Pujols doing relatively little, the Cardinals scored 14 runs in the first two games of this four-game series between the division archrivals.

"They've got some thunder over there," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "They're leading the league in hitting and runs scored and you can see why."

Notes: Ludwick has a 20-game hitting streak and Chris Duncan an 11-game streak for the Cardinals. ... For a second consecutive day, Milton Bradley refused to talk about the third-strike argument that resulted in his ejection from Thursday's game. Piniella backed his player, saying: "It didn't look like a good pitch to me." Cardinals manager Tony La Russa's take: "I don't know how the Cubs get away with making the comments they make about umpires." Aside from that lone pinch-hitting appearance, Bradley hasn't played since Sunday due to a groin injury.

Dodgers 4, Rockies 3

LOS ANGELES -- Jonathan Broxton is accustomed to closing games in the ninth inning with the bases empty. Manager Joe Torre couldn't wait that long this time.

Broxton recorded the fourth five-out save of his career on Friday night, escaping a bases-loaded, one-out jam left by Hong-Chih Kuo and striking out four to preserve the Dodgers' 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

"He has overpowering stuff," said Rockies bench coach Jim Tracy, who managed the Dodgers at the start of Broxton's career. "He has the type of stuff that you look for at the back end of the game. It was just a matter of time, and you had to nurture that process along. Obviously he's arrived, and he showed that last year, and he's become their guy."

Broxton's biggest out was his first one, when Troy Tulowitzki struck out for the fifth time in eight hitless career at-bats against the right-hander.

"Joe just told me to be ready for him," Broxton said. "It's a big adrenaline rush out there, but you've go out there and keep it all inside you and throw strikes. I got ahead of them, and when I had a chance to put them away, I did.

"When you're in the bullpen, you've got to slam the door any way you can," he added. "I had to come up big in that eighth inning. Some days you're not going to have it, but tonight I had it. I just had to go out there and challenge guys. Throwing strikes and pitching ahead is the key."

Broxton then fanned Chris Iannetta on a slider to end the eighth and retired the side in order in the ninth, fanning pinch-hitter Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler.

"When I had Mariano Rivera, I always proclaimed I was never going to use him before the ninth inning, and I always lied. I always chickened out," Torre said. "That was some kind of performance right there by Broxton. I mean, there's absolutely nowhere to go in that situation. You've got to go after people, and he just played hardball."

Mark Loretta capped a four-run seventh inning with a go-ahead RBI single, helping the Dodgers extend their winning streak to six games.

Guillermo Mota (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the victory, his first in a Dodgers uniform since 2004 after stints with Florida, Cleveland, the New York Mets and Milwaukee. Starter Randy Wolf struck out nine in six innings for Los Angeles, allowing three runs and four hits.

Jorge De La Rosa pitched 5 1-3 scoreless innings for the Rockies, allowing five hits and departing with a 3-0 lead after walking two batters in the sixth. Glendon Rusch got pinch-hitter James Loney to ground into an inning-ending double play, but the defending NL West champions pulled ahead one inning later.

Matt Belisle did not retire any of the three batters he faced and was charged with three of the runs. Rafael Furcal singled, Orlando Hudson walked and Manny Ramirez singled home the Dodgers' first run -- ending his five-game RBI drought. Alan Embree (0-1) came on, and Matt Kemp grounded into a force play that scored Hudson. Andre Ethier followed with a double to left-center that brought home Kemp.

Russell Martin looked at a called third strike from Jason Grilli. But Loretta, making his first start of the season at first base, dropped his bat on a breaking ball by the right-hander and looped it into short left field for a single that scored Ethier with the go-ahead run.

Brad Hawpe capped a three-run first inning with a homer to right-center on a 3-2 fastball from Wolf, after Ryan Spilborghs drew a walk and scored on Garrett Atkins' two-out double.

De La Rosa got himself in trouble in the second inning with a two-base throwing error over the head of first baseman Todd Helton, after fielding Wolf's comebacker. But the left-hander escaped the jam by retiring Furcal on a foul pop with runners at second and third.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said before the game that he was putting Manny Corpas back in the closer's role after a few poor outings by Huston Street, who has allowed four runs and eight hits in 2 3-3 innings over his first four appearances -- including a pair of home runs.

Corpas began last season as the closer, but finished up as the setup man to Brian Fuentes. Street, acquired from the A's in the Matt Holliday trade, had a career-high 37 saves for Oakland in 2006 after being named AL Rookie of the Year the previous season.

Notes: The victory was Torre's 2,159th in the regular season, overtaking Bucky Harris for sixth place on the career list. Torre's next target is Sparky Anderson at 2,194. ... RHP Juan Morillo, who was designated for assignment by the Rockies on April 10 to make room on the roster for Belisle, was claimed off outright waivers by the Minnesota Twins. ... The Dodgers placed utilityman Doug Mientkiewicz on the 15-day disabled list because of a separated right shoulder and recalled INF Blake DeWitt from Triple-A Albuquerque. Mientkiewicz will undergo surgery on Monday and is expected to be sidelined a minimum of three months. ... The Rockies are the only team Ramirez has never homered against (47 at-bats). ... Kemp doubled in the third inning to extend his season-opening hit streak to 11 games.