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 Hochevar regained his composure after a brief scare in the first
inning and coasted through the Chicago White Sox's lineup.
Jose Guillen hit a two-run homer and Hochevar pitched six sharp
innings as the Kansas City Royals defeated the White Sox 7-2 on
Tuesday night.
"First couple of hitters I was nervous because he was having
trouble, going east to west a little bit, but he settled in,"
manager Trey Hillman said. "Especially bouncing back from what
happened to him in Tampa, I thought it was a very good outing for
him."
Hochevar (3-1) allowed just one unearned run on three hits and
pitched around four walks. He rebounded after he was tagged for nine
runs and 11 hits over just 2 2-3 innings Thursday in an 11-1 loss at
Tampa Bay.
After walking his first two batters, Hochevar got Andruw Jones to
hit into a double play and struck out Paul Konerko and never ran
into trouble again.
"I'd pretty much made up my mind after 6 (innings), I thought it was
good enough," Hillman said. "Not necessarily a pitch count, it was
more based on he'd done his job, gave us a quality start. In
comparison to what he did in Tampa the other day, he came in here
and did a pretty good job."
Hochevar said he didn't make any adjustments in his mechanics
between the starts.
"I didn't change anything, stuck with what I've been doing,"
Hochevar said. "Trusting my stuff, trying to stay positive, go out
and try to throw a good ballgame. I felt like I had a good approach.
The first two hitters, the ball just wasn't going where I wanted.
But I settled in, got in a groove, and started pounding the strike
zone a lot more."
Mike Aviles had three hits, including a solo homer in the ninth, and
Scott Podsednik had two hits, including an RBI triple against his
former for the Royals, who had 16 hits.
A.J. Pierzynski homered for the White Sox, who had their home
four-game winning streak snapped. Overall, the White Sox have lost
five of its last eight games and are already seven games behind the
first-place Twins in the AL Central.
Gavin Floyd (1-3) continued to struggle, allowing six runs and a
career-high 13 hits in 6 1-3 innings. In his last start at Texas on
Thursday, it appeared Floyd was about to turn it around after a
strong seven-inning victory over the Rangers, but Floyd was in
trouble from the start Tuesday.
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White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen came in optimistic after a
strong start from Jake Peavy in a 5-1 win over the Royals.
"It's kind of weird," Guillen said. "This ballclub plays like a
champ one night and 24 hours later we don't know. I'm confused a
lot. I expect every time I come to the park to play the game
like we played yesterday. We haven't been consistent and when
you're not consistent a lot of bad things could happen."
David DeJesus led off the game with a double and scored on Billy
Butler's double-play grounder.
Jason Kendall led off the second inning with a walk and Aviles
and Mitch Maier followed with back-to-back singles to load the
bases. Chris Getz followed with a bloop RBI single to left, but
the Royals left the bases full as Floyd retired the next three
batters in order.
The Royals had the bases loaded with no outs in the third, but
failed to score. Aviles hit a sharp grounder to Konerko at
first, who stepped on the bag and then threw home to Pierzynski,
who tagged out Jose Guillen. Maier flied out to center to end
the inning. The Royals left six on base in the first three
innings.
Hochevar got some insurance in the seventh. Getz led off with a
single, one out later, Podsednik tripled and scored on Butler's
single. Guillen followed with his eighth homer of the season to
put the Royals up 6-1. Alberto Callaspo chased Floyd with a
single.
"I felt like I was throwing the ball pretty well, but that
inning happened real quick," Floyd said. "I feel like my mind,
my stuff, everything is right there. I'm just trying to put two
together and work from there. I felt like I was getting into a
pretty good groove and it just went the other way."
In the third inning, Juan Pierre bunted for a single and Gordon
Beckham followed with a walk. Pierre and Beckham pulled off a
double steal, and Pierre ended up scoring on Kendall's errant
throw to third.
Pierzynski's home run, his first of the season, came in the
seventh.
NOTES: Ozzie Guillen managed his 1,000th game for the White Sox.
... Before the game, the Royals placed OF Rick Ankiel on the
15-day disabled list with a strained right quad. The Royals plan
on calling up 1B Kila Ka'aihue from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday.
He hit .304 with seven homers in 23 games with Omaha.
[Associated Press}
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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