(Sports Network) - Aiming for a sweep of the lowly Seattle Mariners, the Kansas City Royals host the American League West bottom-feeders in the finale of a three-game set this afternoon at Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City would like nothing more than to finish the first half the season with a four-game win streak and a .500 record at home, and that can be accomplished if the club follows up Saturday's thrilling 5-4 victory over the Mariners with yet another triumph today.

Yesterday the Royals needed a two-run home run by David DeJesus in the bottom of the ninth inning to get them past Seattle, a team that has lost three in a row and continues to display the worst record in the American League.

DeJesus had two hits and two runs scored while teammate Mark Grudzielanek collected two hits, including the 2,000th of his career, to go with an RBI. Alex Gordon, who is hitting only .174 in the last week, and Mark Teahen had an RBI apiece for Kansas City, with former Mariner Horacio Ramirez posting the win with 2 1/3 perfect innings of relief.

Kansas City starter Gil Meche, who also used to pitch for Seattle before heading to the Royals in 2007, gave up four runs on 10 hits over 6 2/3 innings.

Raul Ibanez accounted for a two-run homer of his own and Jeremy Reed was 2- for-4 with two RBI for the Mariners, who lost for the sixth time in their last seven chances. Ichiro Suzuki added a pair of singles and a run scored in the losing effort.

Brandon Morrow was saddled with the loss. After retiring the first two batters in the ninth, he walked pinch-hitter Billy Butler and then watched DeJesus go deep for the game-winner.

Seattle starter Jarrod Washburn made it through six innings, permitting seven hits and just one earned run before exiting.

The Mariners are currently 20 games off the pace in the AL West, 22 games under .500 overall and just 17-31 on the road.

Already seven games under .500 on a personal level, Seattle's Carlos Silva tries to close out his first half of the 2008 campaign on a positive note this afternoon.

Silva, who began his career with four straight winning seasons before going 11-15 in 2006 and 13-14 a year ago, has seen his Mariners come out on the losing side of all but just two of his appearances since the beginning of May. Most recently the right-hander posted his second straight loss, when he and Seattle bowed to Oakland in a 2-0 decision on Tuesday.

In that game Silva allowed just the two runs on seven his and struck out five in eight innings of work, but without any offense to help him out, he was destined to suffer the setback.

Silva, who is 5-3 with a 4.25 ERA in his career versus Kansas City, is getting his first look at the Royals this season.

As for Kansas City, it plans on using Kyle Davies to counter Silva on the hill today. Davies, who has never pitched against Seattle during his four-year career, made his last appearance on Tuesday versus Chicago, suffering the loss in an 8-7 setback for the club.

In that contest the right-hander made it through 5 2/3 innings and gave up three earned runs on nine hits and a pair of walks, while striking out two and throwing a wild pitch for the third time in four games.

Seattle is hitting a collective .216 in the last seven games, producing a mere 17 RBI as a group. Of the team's two home runs in the last seven games, one comes courtesy of Richie Sexson, who is no longer on the roster. As far as the entire season to this point is concerned, the team is third from the bottom in the AL in hitting (.254) and has the worst slugging percentage (.371) of any team in the league.

Thanks to his big fly on Saturday, DeJesus now has eight RBI in his last seven games and has crossed the plate four times himself. Royals shortstop Mike Aviles has 16 total bases in his last seven games, thanks to a home run and a pair of doubles which have led to four runs knocked in along the way.

These two clubs split a pair of games early in the season at Safeco Field, yet the Mariners are still 20-10 in the series since the start of the 2005 season.