Perez gets rare win as Royals top Cards  

[June 19, 2007]  ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Odalis Perez won for only the second time in 10 starts, and the Kansas City Royals took advantage of mistakes by Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright in a 5-3 victory over St. Louis on Monday night.

John Buck homered and Mark Teahen had two hits and an RBI for the Royals, starting a 10-game road trip after a season-best 6-3 homestand during which they took two of three from the Cardinals while outscoring them 28-16.

Wainwright (5-6) gave up five runs -- four earned -- in seven innings, five days after limiting the Royals to one hit in eight scoreless innings in Kansas City. He hurt himself considerably in the field, committing his first two errors of the season in the first and then making a mental error while trying for a spectacular play.

Scott Rolen homered and So Taguchi had three hits for the Cardinals, 4-9 in interleague play.

Perez (4-7) benefited from two bases-loaded, inning-ending double-play balls by Juan Encarnacion, who singled in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. In six innings Perez allowed three runs and six innings -- a huge improvement after allowing an earned run per inning while going 1-3 in his previous four starts.

The left-hander is 2-5 in his last 10 starts, but ended a four-game losing streak against the Cardinals. Prior to Monday he had allowed five earned runs in 2 1-3 innings of relief at new Busch Stadium, which opened last year.

Perez controlled Albert Pujols, who entered the game 13-for-19 with five homers and 15 RBIs against the left-hander. Pujols was intentionally walked twice ahead of Encarnacion's double-play balls in the first and fifth, and struck out with a man on third to end the third.

Octavio Dotel worked the ninth for his sixth save in six chances.

Wainwright threw wildly to first on a relatively easy play in the first, Esteban German's bunt just to the right of the mound, allowing German to go to second. A wild pickoff throw advanced German another base, and he scored on Emil Brown's two-out hit to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.

The Royals scored twice in the fourth to take a 5-1 lead, partly fueled by Wainwright's unsuccessful sliding attempt to glove Perez's popped-up bunt down the first-base line. Wainwright ended up sliding into foul territory along with the ball on what was ruled a single that put runners on first and second. Kansas City got a run-scoring groundout by German and Teahen's two-out RBI single.

Buck hit his 13th homer, and David DeJesus added a run-scoring single in the second for Kansas City.

Notes: Taguchi's leadoff single in the first extended his hitting streak to 11 games. ... Buck has a career-best 13 homers after hitting 12 in 2004 and '05 and 11 in 2006. ... Rolen wasn't able to glove Brown's bouncer far to his left in the seventh, ending a 60-game errorless run for the 3B that dated to Sept. 27, 2006. ... Rolen's homer was his first since May 30 at Colorado. ... The Cardinals have been outscored 51-18 in the first inning.

[Associated Press]