Mike Jacobs hit his first home run as a Royal, Zach Greinke struck out nine in five innings and Joakim Soria had to close things out in the 9 th as the Indians were rallying, but the Royals hold on for a 4-2 win.
Jacobs hit a solo home run in the 4 th inning off Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona after the Royals scored three in the first inning. Carmona walked Coco Crisp and David DeJesus and gave up an RBI single to Mark Teahen to score Crisp. Billy Butler doubled in DeJesus and Teahen would later score on a two out single by Alberto Callaspo.
Greinke threw 104 pitches and could only make it through five innings where he allowed six hits, but he struck out nine to keep his ERA at 0.00 in his first two starts of the year.
The Royals were cruising until the 9 th , when manager Trey Hillman brought in Ron Mahay who gave up two singles to start the inning and Hillman went with the quick hook and brought in Soria.
Soria gave up another single to Grady Sizemore to load the bases for Shin-Soo Choo who singled in a run. Then Soria then threw a wild pitch to score another run and the Indians had runners on 2 nd and 3 rd with no outs.
Soria buckled down. He struck out Victor Martinez, got Travis Hafner to tap back to him, then on a full count, threw a nasty curve to Jhonny Peralta to strike him out to end the game with the tying runs on second and third.
Listen to Royals postgame comments from manager Trey Hillman. Jacobs on his first home run in Kansas City and Greinke talking about why he doesn’t concern himself with strikeouts.
