baseballBullpen preserves Royals sweep
BY BOB DUTTON
Kansas City Star
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Suddenly, the Royals have all the answers. And they add up to Kansas City's first winning month in its last 23 tries. Struggling lefty Jorge De La Rosa scrambled through six-plus scoreless innings Wednesday afternoon before the bullpen provided air-tight relief in a 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
So what did it matter that the offense generated five hits after erupting for 12 runs in Tuesday night's victory? The pitching staff took care of this one. "The feeling when the late innings come around is so different from last year," center fielder David DeJesus said. "We have guys who we can rely on to get guys out. That makes it so much easier to play out there."
De La Rosa (5-9) won for the first time since May 13, and perhaps saved his spot in the rotation by doing so, but it was the bullpen relay of David Riske, Joakim Soria and Octavio Dotel that delivered the knockout blow.
The three combined to retire the final nine hitters and complete a three-game sweep of the Angels, who entered the series with baseball's best record. The Royals also left Angel Stadium with their first four-game winning streak since July 4-7, 2006.
"That's good stuff," manager Buddy Bell said. "Our bullpen throws strikes and has some power. It's nice to have that." The victory allowed the Royals to clinch their first winning month since July 2003. They are 14-11 in June with two games remaining after today's open date. They also finished 5-4 on their three-city road trip after a 1-4 start.
"If we play good baseball, we can play with anybody," Riske said. "You hate to say that because it's so easy to say. But it's true. That's the best team in baseball, and we just swept them at their place. That lets us know that we can play this well." Riske was magnificent in stranding two runners after replacing De La Rosa with no outs in the seventh. "In that situation, I'm just looking to be as aggressive as I can," Riske said. "Don't be afraid of giving up a hit or giving up a walk. Just be aggressive." He struck out Kendry Morales before inducing a routine foul pop from pinch-hitter Casey Kotchman on a 3-0 pitch -- that shortstop Tony Pena Jr. dropped.
"No excuses," Pena said. "Just a high sky."
Riske shrugged it off, got Kotchman to hit another pop, this one in fair territory that Pena caught, before ending the threat by retiring Erick Aybar on a grounder to shortstop. "That was the game right there," Dotel said. "Riske was the guy who put Soria and me in the game." Soria breezed through the eighth before Dotel closed out the victory for his eighth save in 10 opportunities since returning from the disabled list. He struck out two hitters before getting Howie Kendrick to hit a game-ending grounder to short.
"I'm a little mad at myself," Dotel said through a mock frown. "I should have struck out the last guy. No, I'm kidding." Angels right-hander Jered Weaver (6-4) was nearly a scratch because of strep throat and got the loss despite limiting the Royals to one run and four hits in seven innings. That one run came in the third inning after Joey Gathright reached safely on a one-out bunt single. Gathright stole second before DeJesus walked.
Gathright moved to third on Esteban German's fly to right and scored on Mark Teahen's bloop single to left.
"We didn't expect to lose three straight to a team like this, especially the way we've been playing lately," Weaver admitted. "But we couldn't get anything going."
De La Rosa worked out of one jam after another in scattering 10 hits before the bullpen took over. He was 0-6 in eight appearances since his last victory and had allowed 33 earned runs in his previous 30 innings.
"I never lost my confidence," De La Rosa insisted. "I just kept working. I had better command today, especially with my two-seamer. I got a lot of ground balls."
The Angels helped out. They put runners aboard in each of De La Rosa's seven innings. But he picked off one runner, catcher Jason LaRue threw out two more and the Angels grounded into two double plays. "We played about as well as we could the last three days, and we caught them at a time where they weren't playing so well," Bell said. "Time to get out of here."
