Luke Hochevar apparently learned more from his Arkansas Valley upbringing than hurling 90 mile per hour fast balls past wide eyed batters.
    Spoken like a true local, Hochevar, who graduated from Fowler High School, commented Wednesday evening to MLB.com with the kind of grit and country swagger all too familiar with the area local referring to his impressive eight inning outting to oust the Rockies saying, “If I’m in kind of a skid, it’s just: Go out and compete like a madman and keep the ball down.”
    The eight inning thriller at the Kansas City Royals’ Kaufman Stadium was the longest of Hochevar’s career and his three strikeout, seven hit performance was enough to hold off the defending National League champions 4-2.
    With the win, Hochevar improves his overall record to 5-5 all while garnishing one of major league baseball’s worst run support on an up-and-coming ball club.
    Having gone 2-0 in the month of June, Hochevar has lowered his ERA from a season high 5.13 on June 4 to a current 4.60 and has excelled as of late at keeping pitches down in the zone.
    Hailing from a modest upbringing, Hochevar too, like many local youth, looked up to several past and present Rockies, the most prevelent being Todd Helton who went just one for four against Hochevar, scoring a harmless double, just one of seven Rockies hits all evening.
    Referring to Helton, Hochevar went on to add, “You have to think of them as just a hitter in there.  He’s a future Hall of Famer; and if that’s going through my head, I’m in trouble.”
    Making Wednesday’s win ever more impressive, Hochevar scored the win against Rockies standout Aaron Cook, who fell to 10-5 on the season after giving up eight hits and three earned runs in five innings of work.
    Winners of 11 of 15 before entering the three game series against the Royals, Colorado was swept by Kansas City while committing four errors, leaving 28 runners on base and leading in only one inning in the three game set against Kansas City.
    Likely his only costly mistake all game, Hochevar gave up a solo blast to Brad Hawpe in the seventh inning to pull Colorado within two at 4-2 where the score remained.
    The home run was the tenth of the year for Hawpe and only the eighth home run allowed by Hochevar in 76 innings.
    Currently on a 15-9 run, the Royals move to within seven games of .500 and seven games back in the division.
    Kansas City stays home to take on St. Louis this weekend before heading to Baltimore on Monday.
    Hochevar’s next probable start will like be Tuesday against the Orioles.  In hist last outting against Baltimore, Hochevar lasted seven innings and gave up just five hits in a 4-1 loss.