GAME THREAD: AL: KANSAS CITY (32-46) at LA ANGELS (49-29)

De La Rosa lifts Royals to sweep of Angels

<h3>KANSAS CITY 1, LA ANGELS 0</h3>ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Jorge De La Rosa helped theKansas City Royals record their first sweep of the season.

De La Rosa and three relievers combined to pitch a shutout asthe Royals picked up a 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angelsof Anaheim on Wednesday in the finale of a three-game series.

The 26-year-old De La Rosa (5-9), who was winless in hisprevious eight outings, pitched six innings, surrendering 10hits with a walk and a strikeout.

"My control was a lot better and I kept the ball down and got alot of ground ball outs," De La Rosa said. "Command of mypitches were better and the defense played great behind me."

De La Rosa was helped by catcher Jason LaRue, who threw outthree Angels base runners. Reggie Willits, Robb Quinlan andChone Figgins were all caught stealing by LaRue.

"I told him (De La Rosa) to keep his tempo up and to work aheadof them," LaRue said. "They put a lot of pressure on our wholedefense with the speed they have, and we knew if we couldcontain their running game we would have a shot."

Before Wednesday's heroics, De La Rosa posted an 0-6 record withan 8.67 ERA in his last eight appearances.

"De La Rosa scattered his hits around today, but made a lot ofbig pitches to help him out," Royals manager Buddy Bell said."He had more control and better stuff today than past outings."

David Riske entered in the seventh with no outs and two runnerson base and recorded three consecutive outs. Joakim Soriapitched a perfect eighth and Octavio Dotel slammed the door inthe ninth for his eighth save of the season.

"Our pen did their typical job shutting down the other team,"Bell said. "The guys out in the bullpen aren't afraid to takethe ball in any situation."

Kansas City, which recorded its first shutout of the season,scored its only run on a bloop single by Mark Teahen off Angelsstarter Jered Weaver (6-4). Teahen is batting .390 with runnersin scoring position this season.

"I didn't think that run would hold up, especially with theiroffense," Teahen said. "It was good to scratch up a run againstWeaver, and nice to get the winning hit even if it was in thethird inning."

Weaver was saddled with the loss despite a solid outing. The24-year-old righthander yielded just one run and four hits witha walk and six strikeouts over seven innings.

"I pitched a good game, but it wasn't enough for our team topull out a win," Weaver said. "I threw a good pitch to Teahenbut he got enough bat on the ball and got it drop for a big hitin the game."

It is Weaver's first loss since his last start against theRoyals on May 3.