Today ended up being a sunny 80 degrees with a wind factor of 18 mph. The game started with Gil Meche on the mound for the Royals facing newly signed Red Sox SS Julio Lugo. He struck out Lugo then gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and then in turn Big Papi took him to deep center for a double and scoring Youkilis for the games first run.
The bottom half of the first was just as bad for Curt Schilling as comparison to Meche as he quickly gave up three consecutive singles and gave up the first KC run walking Ryan Shealy to score Grudzielanek. The second didn’t start as well as #38 had hoped either as he gave up a triple to deep center by Tony Pena Jr. followed up by a two-out single by Grudzielanek knocking in Pena to take the lead 2-1.

Boston has gone three up three down for the consecutive innings after scoring in the first. Meche seems to have rebounded after a small blip on the radar in the first.

The Royals are looking to make Schilling’s night a short one as it pertains to innings pitched, his pitch count continues to rise and nothing seems to be going right as with one out in the fourth Catcher John Buck doubles to left and Schilling walks Pena, back to the top of the order. A single and double by the Royals score another two before the inning is complete. Meche cruises through five. Curt Schilling replaced by Javier Lopez in the fifth.

Three up and down for the BoSox in the sixth and have pulled Lopez for Hideki Okajima. John Buck takes Okajima deep for a homerun to center and increases the score to 6-1. Gil Meche has truly hit his groove as the Red Sox hitters seem to be unable to touch up the Royals starter at all. Nine up, nine down for Meche no blemishes five, six or seventh, a great opening day start for Gil as a Royal.

Hideki Okajima relieved by Brendan Donnelly in the bottom of the seventh. Gil Meche goes 7 innings and one-third strong as he is finished after giving up a single to center by Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Joel Peralta is the pitcher to relieve Meche after leaving the game as the winning pitcher on record.

To start the bottom of the 8th Joel Pineiro rises up out of the bullpen and subs in for Brendan Donnelly. Donnelly had a short stint and I fully expect Pineiro to finish it out as the Sox need a miracle to get back into this game. Wow! As I am talking Pena triples to deep left-center scoring Ross Gload. JC Romero quickly is warmed and brought in for Pineiro. Romero is the sixth pitcher in today’s game as opposed to the Royals sending two thus far to the hill. Truly not how manager Terry Francona had imagined the start of the season going. But with an off-day tomorrow no pitchers over pitched today so that is good for this opening series in KC. The line for Schilling is 4.0 IP, with 5 k’s, 2 walks and five earned runs giving him a bloated 11.25 ERA in his limited action with 89 pitches (55) for strikes. On the opposite spectrum Meche posted 6 SO with one walk in 7.1 IP with 103 pitches and 62 for strikes. At least for this day it seems money well spent as he posted a 1.23 ERA against a BoSox lineup that includes Manny Ramirez and Big Papi David Ortiz.

Wily Mo Pena pinch hitting for JD Drew in the ninth with no luck striking out swinging. Mike Lowell doubles deep to left looking for some pride as the Sox are down to their last out with Joel Peralta still on the mound.
Varitek flies out to right for the third and final out of the game Royals win?

This game has shown the league that Gil Meche when on his game can stop a very good Boston lineup with only a minor hiccup in the first. Ten strikeouts by Sox batters today 3 through 5 hitters today were 2-10. Boston just couldn’t start anything to get things going that was the story, props to Meche as he took the Sox out of the game after the first.

Meche gets the win (1-0), while Schilling struggled and is tagged with the loss (0-1).

Written by contributing editor Scott Penny