The Sports Xchange
Blue Jays 4, Royals 2
TORONTO — Kansas City Royals right-handed reliever Aaron Crow walked in two runs in a three-run eighth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays came back to defeat the Royals 4-2 on Saturday.
Crow walked Brett Lawrie and Rajai Davis with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead runs and earn Royals manager Ned Yost an ejection for arguing the calls.
All three Toronto runs in the eighth were unearned.
The Blue Jays (62-74) have won three games in a row, including the first two games of the three-game series with Kansas City.
Blue Jays right-hander R.A. Dickey (11-12) allowed seven hits and two runs over eight innings to earn his second win in a row. The knuckleball pitcher allowed two walks and had six strikeouts.
Royals right-hander Jeremy Guthrie allowed eight hits but only one run as he was helped by three outfield assists. He did not give up a walk and struck out four.
Right-hander Kelvin Herrera (5-7) took over from Guthrie in the eighth and allowed a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki.
Jose Reyes looped a single to center with one out to move Kawasaki to second and bring in left-hander Will Smith. Kawasaki came around to score the tying run on an error by shortstop Alcides Escobar on a grounder by Ryan Goins with Reyes moving to second.
Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases. Crow came in to strike out pinch-hitter Mark DeRosa. But he walked Lawrie and Davis to push in two runs.
Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for his 26th save. He hit David Lough with a pitch to lead off the inning and gave up a single to pinch-hitter George Kottaras with one out to put runners at the corners. But then he struck out Alex Gordon, and pinch-runner Chris Getz was caught stealing to end the game.
The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a one-out walk by Salvador Perez and two-out singles by Jarrod Dyson and Escobar.
They took a 2-0 lead in the third on a triple to right-center by former Blue Jay Emilio Bonifacio and a single to left by Eric Hosmer.
The Blue Jays scored a run in the seventh on a two-out double to left-center by Davis, who scored on a single to left by Josh Thole, who was out trying for a double.
The Blue Jays were also thrown out on the bases twice in the first three innings. Goins was out trying to go first to third on a single to left by Encarnacion in the first, and Reyes was out trying for a double on a hit to right in the third.
NOTES: A single in the first inning gave Goins a hit in each of his first eight major-league games. It equals the longest hitting streak to open a major-league career by a Blue Jays rookie, set by RF Jesse Barfield in 1981. … Hosmer’s first hit of the game, single in the first, extended his hit streak to four games. … Encarnacion’s second hit of the game, a single in the fourth, was No. 1,000 in his career. … Gordon singled in the seventh and has a seven-game hitting streak. He also had two outfield assists equaling his career high, done four previous times. … RHP James Shields (9-8, 3.14 ERA) will start the series finale on Sunday against LHP J.A. Happ (3-4, 5.46 ERA). … Attendance at Rogers Centre was 34,315.
———————————————–
