Luis Mendoza took to the hill on Tuesday evening for the Royals in his first appearance of the season with the big league club. He left pitches up high in the zone early but was effective at getting Detroit batters to swing the bats and get themselves out as Kansas City went on to defeat the Tigers 10-2.
Mendoza would throw 102 pitches, 62 being for strikes, during a seven inning start. He allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits. He would strike out and walk three batters each.
Kansas City got a run in the bottom of the first when Alex Gordon lead off the inning with his 23rd home run of the year. It was the fifth time this season that Gordon has hit a leadoff home run for the boys in blue.
The Royals really got things cooking in the bottom of the fourth inning when they scored six times off Tigers starter Brad Penny to stretch it to a 7-0 lead. Eric Hosmer keyed the inning with a three-run home run, his 18th of the year. It took the score from 4-0 to the commanding 7-0 lead. Despite not making his debut until May 6th, Hosmer now has 75 RBI's to give with his 18 home runs. After his first career 5-for-5 evening he is batting .300/.343/.474.
Melky Cabrera and Salvador Perez added three hits each as the Royals once again were in double digits for hits with 16 as a team. Perez his his second home run of the year, a two-run, fifth inning shot off Tigers reliever Duane Below.
Blake Wood relieved Mendoza and pitched the final two innings, allowing no runs though he did scatter three hits.
Kansas City improves to 68-87 on the year and will be making their final appearance of 2011 in front of the home fans tomorrow evening against the Tigers. Another solid crowd should be expected as nearly 27,000 fans showed up on Monday evening. With a win tomorrow, Kansas City would finish the season 41-40 at home.
In other news, the Omaha Storm Chasers fell 8-3 to the Columbus Clippers in the AAA National Championship game. Though they didn't win the title, a Pacific Coast League Championship is nothing to slouch about, especially with so many players having moved up to Kansas City during the season.