The Kansas City Royals avoided a sweep by the St. Louis Cardinals with a 9-2 win at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Early mistakes, specifically mistakes by shortstop David Eckstein, helped the Royals to six unearned runs in the top of the first inning. After Angel Berroa led off the game with a single, Eckstein booted a grounder from Royals center fielder David DeJesus to put runners at first and third with no outs. But it looked like Cardinal starter Jeff Suppan might escape unharmed when Mike Sweeney and Matt Stairs recorded the first and second out of the inning. But Emil Brown stepped up and belted a two-run double to put the Royals on the board. Mark teahean followed up with a one run double to make it 3-0. Matt Diaz grounded to Eckstein, who threw wide of first base to keep the inning alive, as Teahen scored to make it 4-0. John Buck followed up with a two-run homer to give KC a 6-0 bulge.Eckstein made another error in the second inning that proved to be less harmful—the Royals didn’t score that inning, but the damage had been done. Starting pitcher Ryan Jensen used and lasted five innings to earn his first win since September 29, 2002. He allowed two runs off three hits and three walks. Reliever Leo Nunez replaced Jensen and held the Cardinals to one hit ove three innings. Mike MacDougal pitched a perfect ninth inning.Suppan lasted five innings and was charged with only three of the nine runs scored on his watch. The win ended a 10-game skid in interleague play for the Royals.
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