Visitor: Cleveland Indians

Home: Kansas City Royals

Date: April 22, 2008

Scoring:

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E

CLE 0 1 2 5 2 0 2 3 0 15 17 0

KC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 6 1

Visitor playmakers:

3B Casey Blake, LF David Dellucci, SS Jhonny Peralta, 2B Asdrubal Cabrera, DH Travis Hafner, CF Grady Sizemore, RF Franklin Gutierrez

Home playmakers:

LF Mark Teahen

Network: FSN Kansas City

Announcers: Ryan Lefebvre, Paul Splittorff

Pregame: Yes

Postgame: Yes

Commercials: No

Grade: A

Notes: Casey Blake had a grand slam among his four hits and knocked in six runs for the Cleveland Indians in a 15-1 romp over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium. Defending American League Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia earned his first victory of the season with six shutout innings and 11 strikeouts. It was the fifth straight loss for the Royals and made them 3-9 in their last 12 games. It's a disheartening change of fortune for a club that had an uplifting 6-2 start. The Royals had just six hits, all singles, and couldn't get anything going.

The Royals have scored just 12 runs in their five straight losses and have been outscored, 60-26, in their last eight games. Kansas City starter Gil Meche lasted just 3 1/3 innings, chased by a barrage of eight runs that included two home runs. The most damaging blast was Blake's grand slam in the fourth inning. Three singles started the inning, including hits by Jhonny Peralta, Asdrubal Cabrera and Franklin Gutierrez, the latter a bunt. Blake rifled a drive just inside the left-field foul pole, the fourth slam of his career. Casey has been mighty tough on Meche, going 11-for-23 (.478) against him with two homers and 12 RBIs.

Peralta is no slouch against Meche, either. His two hits made him 10-for-18 (.556) against the Royals right-hander. David Dellucci lofted a home run to right field later in the fourth and that ended Meche's outing. The right-hander slipped to 1-3 with an 8.00 ERA. Peralta homered against reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta to lead off the seventh. The blow traveled 416 feet to center field.

Sabathia, meantime, was pitching nothing like a guy who was 0-3, 13.50 ERA in four previous starts. His first six outs were via strike three. By the time Sabathia finished his six innings, he'd registered 11 punchouts, Mark Teahen and Jose Guillen three times each.

Guillen was 4-for-4 in strikeouts -- he also whiffed against reliever Rafael Betancourt -- and his average fell to .165 (13-for-79). Teahen always has a miserable time against Sabathia. In his career, he's struck out 16 times in 28 at-bats against the big guy -- with just six hits. The Kansas City left fielder did, however, rouse what remained of 16,165 fans when his RBI single broke the shutout in the eighth inning.

Running time: 3:49 (2 discs)