Meche, Buck lead Royals over Rays in KC

Baseball Betting Lines

07/25/2008 - Kansas City, MO (Baseball Betting) - Gil Meche was brilliant on the hill and John Buck drove in two runs, as the Kansas City Royals staved off a late comeback by the Tampa Bay Rays to take a 4-2 victory.

Meche (8-9) yielded just five hits while fanning four batters and walking only one over seven scoreless innings. Joakim Soria gave up a run in the ninth, but still managed to earn his 27th save.

Ross Gload and Mark Grudzielanek knocked in a run each for the Royals, who snapped a three-game skid.

"It's good to see them (the Tigers) out of town and it was good to get that first run in the first inning to get us a lead," David DeJesus said. "Gil (Meche) didn't pitch good in the early innings, but once the later innings came around he was lights out."

Matt Garza (8-6) was saddled with the loss as he gave up all four runs on eight hits while walking four hitters. J.P. Howell, Grant Balfour and Dan Wheeler combined to throw three innings of two-hit ball.

B.J. Upton had an RBI for the Rays, who have alternated wins and losses for the last six contests. Cliff Floyd drove in the other run for TB. Jason Bartlett, who was activated from the disabled list prior to the game, went 3- for-3 and scored a run.

"We're going to have to play a lot more games on the road in the second half than at home," Evan Longoria said. "So we're going to have to learn how to win on the road. At least look to split. In these four series, we've got to win two."

The Rays, trailing 4-1, rallied again in the ninth, but it was too little, too late. Soria came in and immediately gave up a double to Longoria. Carlos Pena then put runners on the corners with a single. Floyd's sacrifice fly made it 4-2, but Dioner Navarro grounded out and Eric Hinske went down swinging to seal the deal.

KC jumped on top in the first. DeJesus led off with a single, moved to third on Mike Aviles' single and crossed home as Mark Grudzielanek offered a sac fly to center.

The Royals tacked on three more runs in the fourth inning. Alex Gordon started it off with a one-out single before Billy Butler walked. Gload kept it going with an RBI single and Buck followed with a two-run double to put KC up 4-0.

The Rays managed just five hits through seven innings.

TB put a run on the board in the eighth inning off Ron Mahay. Bartlett opened the frame with a double, moved to third on Akinori Iwamura's grounder and came around as Upton grounded out.

Game Notes

The Rays fell to 19-26 as the visitor in 2008...Garza is an impressive 6-1 with a 2.10 earned run average on the Tropicana Field mound this season, but has struggled to a 2-5 record in eight starts away from St. Petersburg.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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