Royals Game Notes
Published on May 21, 2008 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Omaha Storm Chasers News Release
TONIGHT: The Royals host the Iowa Cubs at Rosenblatt Stadium in game 3 of a 4-game home stand. Iowa leads the series 2-0. Kids Eat Free! All kids 12-and-under receive a voucher for a personal SUBWAY pizza or a meal voucher from the Omaha Royals. It's brought to you by SUBWAY, Star 104.5 and The Omaha Newspapers! It's also Martial Arts Night, presented by Mark Goblowsky's Martial Arts, with on-field martial arts demonstrations throughout the game. 1st pitch is 6:35 p.m., with the pre-game show on the air at 6:15 p.m. on News Talk 1420 KOTK and at www.oroyals.com.
LAST NIGHT: Iowa 3rd baseman Casey McGehee hit 1 of the Cubs' 3 solo home runs, adding a 3-run double to cap a 5-run 7th inning as the I-Cubs downed the Royals 8-2. Felix Pie and Koyie Hill also went deep in the 1st and 2nd innings, respectively. Shane Costa's 2nd hit of the game, an RBI single in the 3rd, cut Iowa's lead to 2-1. But, McGehee drilled his 5th round-tripper of the season in the 6th off Royals starter Brandon Duckworth (2-2), who took the loss despite turning in a quality start (3 ER in 6.0 innings). Iowa iced the game with the big 7th inning, with all but 1 of the runs being unearned off Devon Lowery due to his own fielding error on Pie's 2nd sacrifice bunt of the contest. Randy Wells (3-1) turned in his longest start since joining Iowa's rotation, working 5.0 frames and allowing a run on 5 hits.
ROYALS REPORT: The Royals have lost 8 of their last 10 and 15 of the past 20 games overall. Omaha has also lost 6 in a row at Rosenblatt. It's the longest home losing skid since a 6-gamer in August of 2006. The last home losing streak that was longer than 6 games went an incredible 12 games back in April-May of 2003. In that season, the Royals posted a 70-73 overall record, but were just 25-47 at home, while going 45-26 on the road. *** Prior to this series, Iowa had hit 30 home runs in 42 games. The Cubs have smashed 5 homers in the 1st 2 contests here, using gusty winds toward right to send all 5 of them over the right field wall. Meanwhile, the Royals had belted 62 long balls in their 1st 41 tilts, but have hit just 2 homers in this series. On the season, Omaha batters have hit 64 home runs, 2nd-most in the PCL. However, Royals pitchers have served up 59 gopher balls, tied for most-allowed in the league. *** Duckworth has given up 7 home runs in 42.0 innings with Omaha this season, after allowing just 3 homers in 46.2 frames with KC in 2007. *** Mike Stodolka hit his 2nd dinger of the season last night off former KC reliever (1997) Hector Carrasco. It was Stodolka's 1st home run in 14 games, dating back to April 24 vs. Nashville, when he went deep off Iowan Nic Ungs. Last night's homer was seen by a group of his family members. *** Costa posted his 12th multi-hit game of the season last night, upping his average to .307, and he collected his 29th RBI in 41 games. *** Angel Berroa's 9th inning double Tuesday night extended his hitting streak to 4 games. He's 6-for-15 (.400) with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored during the string. *** Chris Lubanski went hitless in 4 at-bats last night, halting his streak at 5 games (.353, 6-for-17 in streak). *** After going 10-for-22 (.455) with 2 RBI and 7 runs scored over the previous 6 contests, Brian Buchanan was 0-for-4 last night, with 3 strikeouts. *** Mitch Maier, who had gone 1-for-9 over the 3 games prior to last night, bounced back Tuesday by going 2-for-4 with a double. Just before he cooled off, Maier had put together a 19-game hit string, when he batted .363 (29-for-80) with 4 homers and 18 RBI. *** Jason Smith went 7-for-14 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI in the recent trip to Albuquerque, but is 1-for-7 with 4 strikeouts in this series. On the season, Smith is batting .231 with 3 taters and 11 RBI in 22 games at home, while hitting .278 with 7 dingers and 16 RBI in 19 contests on the road.
STARTERS: RH Justin Berg (0-2, 11.81) vs. RH Kyle Davies (5-2, 2.09)
Davies makes his 9th start of the season. The 24-year old right-hander's 2.09 ERA leads the PCL. His last outing was last Friday at Albuquerque, when he won his 2nd consecutive start and was a winner for the 4th time in his last 5 starts, leading Omaha to a 6-2 victory (6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K). Davies has given up just 1 run in 12.0 innings over his last 2 outings, trimming his ERA by 52 points in the process. He's 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA in 3 starts at home, while going 3-2 with a 2.67 ERA in 5 road assignments. Davies was acquired by KC from Atlanta in exchange for reliever Octavio Dotel on July 31, 2007. He began last season with the Braves and was 4-8 with a 5.76 ERA in 17 starts. Following the trade, he went 3-7 and posted a 6.66 ERA in 11 starts for KC. Davies made his KC debut last August 4 at Yankee Stadium, allowing 5 runs on 6 hits in 3.0 innings and surrendering Alex Rodriguez' 500th career home run. He earned a win in his Kauffman Stadium debut vs. Minnesota, firing 6.2 shutout innings in a 1-0 victory. In 2006, he opened the season in the Braves starting rotation, but underwent surgery to repair a torn right groin on May 19 and was on the D.L. until September 1. Davies began his big league career with Atlanta in 2005 by recording 14.0 straight scoreless innings, the most by a Braves rookie starter to open his career since Larry McWilliams (14.1) in 1978. In 2004, he was named the Phil Niekro Award Winner as the top pitcher in the Braves organization and was selected to Baseball America's minor league All-Star 2nd team. Davies was selected by Atlanta in the 4th round of the 2001 draft out of Stockbridge High School in Georgia. Kyle is his middle name - his given name is Hiram.
PROBABLES FOR REMAINDER OF SERIES:
Thur., 6:35 p.m.: LH Sean Marshall (0-0, 1.50) vs. RH Carlos Rosa (0-1, 15.00)
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