KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Colby Rasmus went deep twice and drove in four runs and Edwin Encarnacion added a home run and three RBI, powering the Blue Jays past the struggling Royals, 9-5, in the second meeting of a four- game series.

Kansas City remains winless at home (0-8) — the longest drought to start a season in franchise history — and has lost nine straight overall.

Rasmus and Encarnacion each had three of Toronto’s 14 hits to back Drew Hutchinson in his major league debut. The 21-year-old Hutchinson (1-0) recorded his first win despite allowing five runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 1/3 frames.

The Royals did not have enough firepower to survive Luis Mendoza’s poor start and subpar relief efforts by Everett Teaford and Kelvin Herrera. Mendoza was charged with four runs on 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings, Teaford (0-1) gave up three runs in his three-inning stint and Herrera served up a pair of home runs.

Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon each homered and Alcides Escobar went 4-for-4 in defeat.

Kansas City went ahead 5-4 following a four-run fifth inning, but the lead was short-lived after Brett Lawrie began the sixth with a single and trotted home when Rasmus blasted a screaming line drive into the right-field seats.

Darren Oliver stranded runners on the corners in the bottom half by striking out Mitch Maier and getting Yuniesky Betancourt to hit a sinking liner that was caught by Jose Bautista in right.

Herrera wasn’t as effective in relief in the away seventh, entering with one on and one out and promptly serving up Encarnacion’s fourth home run of the season. Rasmus came up two batters later and slugged another homer to right.

Oliver and Carlos Villanueva combined to keep the Royals in check the rest of the way.

In the first inning, Gordon welcomed Hutchinson to the big leagues by finding the first row of seats in center field for his second home run of the season.

Mendoza was roughed up for four runs in the fourth, which began with Adam Lind doubling to right and scoring on Encarnacion’s one-out base hit. The next four hitters all singled to chase Mendoza, with Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia and Yunel Escobar all driving in runs.

Bautista lined into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning, and the Royals responded with four runs of their own in the fifth.

Maier hit a stand-up triple into the right-field gap to plate Alcides Escobar and scored on Betancourt’s single up the middle. Hosmer’s two-run blast later in the inning landed in the seats in right-center, just short of the waterfalls.

– Sports Network –

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jose Bautista knocked in the go-ahead run in Toronto’s three-run eighth inning, as the Blue Jays kept the Royals winless at Kauffman Stadium with a 4-3 victory in the opener of a four-game series.

Toronto rallied against reliever Greg Holland (0-2) to extend Kansas City’s franchise-worst start at home to 0-7. The Royals have dropped eight in a row overall.

J.P. Arencibia went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs for the Blue Jays, who were coming off a 4-5 homestand.

Luis Perez (2-0) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win behind Kyle Drabek, who allowed four hits and six walks over 5 1/3 innings, but limited the Royals to two runs — one coming on Mike Moustakas’ home run.

Kansas City’s Luke Hochevar, whose start was pushed back so he could rest a sore ankle, pitched an effective five innings, allowing one run on two hits and two walks while fanning five.

He exited with a 2-1 lead that held up before Holland’s forgettable appearance in the eighth. Colby Rasums greeted the reliever with a double and scored on Arencibia’s base hit up the middle.

After Yunel Escobar walked, Holland was called for a balk to open up first base, and the Blue Jays opted to intentionally walk Kelly Johnson to face the dangerous Bautista.

The two-time reigning home run champion responded by going the other way with an outside pitch for a single, plating the go-ahead run.

Jose Mijares mercifully relieved Holland and limited the Blue Jays to one more run on Edwin Encarnacion’s sacrifice fly.

Francisco Cordero worked around a leadoff walk in the home eighth, but closer Sergio Santos gave up a run in the ninth before closing the door for his second save.

Alcides Escobar doubled with one away and scored on Yuniesky Betancourt’s two- out base hit. Chris Getz pinch-ran for Betancourt and stole second to get in scoring position, but Eric Hosmer, who lined into a triple play earlier in the game, grounded out weakly to second to end the game.

In the top of the second, Moustakas robbed Encarnacion of a base hit, and in the bottom half drove a Drabek offering into the bullpen beyond the right- field wall for the game’s first run.

A rarity for both teams occurred in the third when Hosmer lined into a triple play. Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind caught the ball on the fly near his cleats, tagged first base to force out Betancourt, then threw to second to nab Alex Gordon sliding back to the bag.

“It was so fast it was over,” Lind said.

It was the first time the Blue Jays turned a triple play since 1979, the same year the Royals last hit into a triple play.

“It was a fastball in right there. I saw it good and put a good swing on it. The result wasn’t was I was hoping,” Hosmer mused.

Undaunted, Kansas City added a run in the fourth when Jeff Francoeur raced home from third after Arencibia couldn’t handle Drabek’s 60-foot slider in the dirt.

Arencibia got the run back in the fifth with a base hit in front of center fielder Mitch Maier to bring in Eric Thames from second base.

– Sports Network –

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder each hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to lift the Detroit Tigers over the Kansas City Royals, 3-1, in the middle portion of a three-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

Ramon Santiago knocked in the other run for Detroit, while Octavio Dotel (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Jose Valverde shut the door in the ninth for his second save of the season.

Drew Smyly made his second career start and allowed an unearned run on seven hits and a walk for the Tigers, who earned their third straight win.

Bruce Chen (0-1) gave up two runs on six hits through seven-plus innings to take the loss. He struck out seven and did not issue a walk in the Royals’ sixth consecutive loss.

“It’s no fun going through it when you lose six in a row, your first five games at home when you had so much enthusiasm coming home,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “It’s not fun to do that, but you can’t panic.”

Chen had retired the previous 13 batters he faced before Andy Dirks led off the eighth inning with a base hit.

Greg Holland then entered in relief and fanned Austin Jackson before allowing three straight singles to Brennan Boesch, Cabrera and Fielder, scoring Dirks and Boesch for a 3-1 Tigers lead.

“We know we have a shot no matter what the score is,” said Dirks. “We’ve got good enough hitters where we can put runs up quick and we did what we had to do today.”

Jeff Francoeur hit a two-out triple off Joaquin Benoit in the bottom of the eighth when Boesch made a diving miss of a sinking liner to right field, but Mike Moustakas went down swinging to end the inning.

Valverde then brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth after allowing a one-out walk to Brayan Pena. But he struck out Alcides Escobar before inducing an Alex Gordon grounder to first to end the game.

Detroit struck first in the second inning after Delmon Young led off the frame with a base hit and Ryan Raburn followed two batters later with a double down the third-base line to place runners on second and third.

Santiago stepped up next and lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that brought home Young, but that would be all the Tigers would get as Dirks hit a pop up behind home plate to strand Raburn.

Kansas City answered with a run in the third inning when Escobar hit a hard liner back at Smyly that bounced off the pitcher’s back. Smyly managed to recover and field the ball, but his throw to first bounced well short of the bag and went wide to the right, allowing Escobar to moved to second on the error.

Gordon followed with a base hit into center field to score Escobar.

Kansas City then stranded a man in scoring position in the fourth and sixth and a man at third in the seventh.

– Sports Network –