Royals send Meche to mound vs. Twins

Sep 12, 2007, 15:06 GMT

- Gil Meche goes for his first win in nine starts this afternoon when the Kansas City Royals close a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium.

Meche, who is in the midst of the worst losing streak of his career, has not won since beating Detroit back on July 20, going 0-6 in that time despite allowing three runs or less in all but two of those outings. He received a no- decision on Friday against the New York Yankees, as he gave up two runs and five hits in six innings of a 3-2 loss.

Kansas City has managed just 3.82 runs for him this season.

Meche has lost twice to the Twins this season and is 5-3 lifetime against them with a 4.18 ERA in 11 starts.

Minnesota will counter with righty Carlos Silva, who is 11-13 with a 4.34 ERA. Silva received a no-decision on Friday against Chicago, as he allowed three runs and eight hits in six innings of his team's 11-10 loss.

Silva has faced the Royals 11 times in his career and is 5-2 against them - including two victories this season - with a 3.99 ERA.

In the second game of this series on Tuesday, Scott Baker threw 5 2/3 solid innings and Joe Mauer doubled twice to help Minnesota to a 6-3 win. Jason Bartlett and Torii Hunter added two hits apiece for the Twins, who have won three straight since dropping six in a row.

Baker carried a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Royals back on August 31 before walking the leadoff batter, then serving up a single in a 5-0 win. He improved to 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA in three starts against Kansas City this season.

Baker (9-7) allowed 10 hits and only three runs. Joe Nathan threw a scoreless ninth to record his 32nd save in 36 chances.

Alex Gordon went 4-for-4 with two doubles and David DeJesus and Mark Grudzielanek had two hits apiece for the Royals, who matched a season-high with their seventh straight loss.

A loss today would give them eight in a row for the first time since September 17-26.

Kyle Davies (2-5) was charged with the loss, as allowed four runs -- two earned -- on four hits in five innings.

Kansas City has lost nine of its 17 matchups with the Twins this season after losing 12 of 19 to them a year ago. Minnesota is also 46-28 in the series since the start of the 2004 campaign.

© 2007 The Sports Network