Mike Aviles hit a grand slam in the second inning and drove in a total of five runs as the bats backed Zach Greinke early in a 8-3 win under the lights in Cactus League play in Arizona.
The Royals scored four in the first and four in the second on that slam and then the bats cooled off, but early on the Royals were rolling. Coco Crisp had two more hits. He’s now 20 for 48, a .417 batting average.
Greinke, who will start the second game of the season on April 8th in Chicago,
struck out eight in five innings, giving him 19 in 21 1/3 innings. He’s leaving right where we he left off after the 2008 season where he ranked third in the AL in strikeouts. Greinke did give up three runs, two earned, on four hits. Jamey Wright worked two scoreless innings and Roman Colon had one.
Manager Trey Hillman announced that Gil Meche will make his third straight Opening Day start. In 2007 he went 7 1/3 innings to gain a 7-1 win over Boston. Last year he had a no-decision after going six innings of an 11-inning, 5-4 win at Detroit.
