Hafner's sixth slam of '06 powers Indians' Royal rout

CLEVELAND (AP) -- As a youngster, Travis Hafner was a Don

Mattingly fan. Now, he's matched his grand slam record.

Hafner hit his sixth grand slam in Cleveland's 11-run first

inning to tie Mattingly's single-season record and the Indians

routed the Kansas City Royals 13-0 Sunday.

"It's pretty cool to tie a major league record," Hafner said.

"Mattingly was one of the best hitters in the game. I liked to

watch him on TV when I was young."

Hafner put Cleveland ahead 11-0 with his 35th homer of the

season and tied Mattingly's mark set with the New York Yankees in

1987.

The Indians got the historic baseball back from a fan and gave

it to Hafner, who has 45 games remaining with a chance to break the

record.

"I'll have to see if there is a next one," Hafner said. He is

8-for-13 with six homers and 29 RBI this season with the bases

loaded. It was his eighth career grand slam.

The first 10 Indians to bat all reached base and scored against

Luke Hudson (5-4).

"It was one of those days where everything was wild and what

wasn't was right down the middle," Royals manager Buddy Bell said.

Elias Says

Hudson Travis Hafner's sixth grand slam of the season capped an 11-run first inning in the Indians' 13-0 romp over the Royals. Hafner, who tied Don Mattingly's single-season record for grand slams, has five home runs in his last eight at-bats with the bases loaded. When Mattingly set the record in 1987, he didn't hit more than four homers over any span of eight bases-loaded at-bats. Luke Hudson started for Kansas City and had an inning to forget. Hudson allowed seven runs before he retired a batter and surrendered 11 runs in one-third of an inning before being removed from the game. No pitcher had allowed as many as 11 runs in the first inning of a game since September 21, 1897, when Brooklyn scored 12 off Boston's Kid Nichols in the opening frame of the first game of a doubleheader. Cleveland was the second team in the last three seasons (since 2004) to score seven first-inning runs before making an out; the Dodgers did it at Cincinnati on May 6, 2005. • For more Elias Says, Click here.

It was the largest first inning by the Indians since opening

with 11 runs against the Baltimore Orioles on July 6, 1954. The

team record is a 14-run first inning against the Philadelphia

Athletics on June 18, 1950.

"Every day you see something different," Indians manager Eric

Wedge said. "It was crazy. I've never seen a first inning like

that."

Rookie Jeremy Sowers (4-3) gave up five hits over six innings.

He struck out two and walked one to help Cleveland complete a

four-game series sweep and match a season-high six-game winning

streak set April 4-11. The left-hander is 3-0 over his last five

starts, allowing five earned runs in 36 innings to lower his ERA

from 7.94 to 3.53.

"There's nothing wrong with my teammates getting hits and

scoring runs," Sowers said. "When they finally make that third

out 45 minutes later, you go out and try to pitch your game.

Andrew Brown made his major league debut for Cleveland after

being called up from Triple-A Buffalo and pitched two scoreless

innings.

The Royals have been outscored 74-31 in losing 11 in a row at

Jacobs Field since July 20, 2005.

"We definitely need to get out of here for a while," Bell

said.

Hudson gave up 10 earned runs and eight hits with three walks in

one-third of an inning, falling to 5-1 since being recalled from

Triple-A Omaha on June 30.

"I had one of those days, to say the least," Hudson said. "I

never expected one this bad. I just goes to show that you can't get

too high after a few wins and I shouldn't be too low after a loss

like this."

The right-hander walked Grady Sizemore and Hafner around a

single by Jason Michaels to start the 31-minute bottom of the

first. Victor Martinez hit a two-run single and Shin-Soo Choo a

two-run double to make it 4-0.

Ryan Garko singled and Jhonny Peralta got credit for an RBI when

his fielder's choice grounder was thrown away by shortstop Angel

Berroa for an error.

Joe Inglett singled to load the bases and a walk to Andy Marte

forced in a run to make it 6-0.

Sizemore singled off Hudson's glove to score Peralta and after

Michaels struck out, Hafner hit a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right,

giving him 104 RBI, five short of his career best. His 35th homer

extended his career high.

"Nobody wanted to make that first out," Hafner said. "I was

glad J-Mike did just before I got up there."

Said Michaels: "We were having so much fun, I said, 'OK guys,

keep it going, so I can come around again and make the second out.'

"

Martinez doubled to finish Hudson, who was replaced by Todd

Wellemeyer. The right-hander got Choo to ground out and Garko to

fly to left to finally end the rally.

Garko homered in the fourth to make it 12-0 and Franklin

Gutierrez hit his first career homer off Andrew Sisco in the

eighth.

Wellemeyer gave up one run and two hits over 6 2-3 innings.Game notes
Hafner had been tied with Baltimore's Jim Gentile (1961)

and Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs (1955) with five grand slams.

... RHP Jeremy Guthrie was optioned back to Buffalo when the

Indians called up Brown. ... Inglett returned to the Indians'

lineup after missing three games with a sprained left foot. ...

Hudson has allowed 17 earned runs in only 2 2-3 innings (57.38 ERA)

in two career starts against Cleveland. ... Royals CF David

DeJesus' leadoff single in the first extended his streak of

reaching base safely to 19 games. ... The Indians' 14-run first

inning in 1950 is tied for the AL record, and one off the modern

major league record.