Royals Pick Up First Win

Two days after the bats struggled in a loss to the Rangers in the spring opener, the Royals' bats were out in full force Friday as a 6-run 1st helped KC to a 13-9 win over the Padres.

The Royals blistered Padres starter Shawn Estes for 6 ER in 2/3 of an inning before knocking around four other Padres' pitching hopefuls. Ross Gload and Justin Huber were two of the offensive standouts as Gload pounded a 2-run homer in a 2-3 game and Huber was 2-2 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI. David DeJesus and Alberto Callaspo had 2-hit games as well as KC cranked out 17 hits and stole 4 bases (two by NRI guy Damon Hollins). Thirteen different guys had hits for the Royals and shortstops Tony Pena and Angel Berroa had an error each.

On the mound, Gil Meche had a great debut with 2 scoreless IP. Hideo Nomo made his debut and allowed an unearned run over his 2 innings. Jimmy Gobble gave up 4 runs (only 1 ER) and Joakim Soria had the roughest outing of any Royal today with 3 ER in his inning. Brandon Duckworth also allowed an ER in his 1 2/3 IP. Still way too early for any evaluation either way, but it's nice to see KC churn out 13 runs, even if it doesn't count in the big picture.

Ken covers the Royals on his blog The Pipeline.