When Luis Mendoza couldn’t keep his sinker down, the Toronto Blue Jays took advantage.

Carlos Villanueva pitched six shutout innings, Yunel Escobar drove in two runs and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 4-1 Wednesday night.

Three of Toronto’s four runs came on sacrifice flies, leaving Royals manager Ned Yost frustrated that Mendoza was unable to get ground balls.

”The only thing was he couldn’t get the ball down in crucial situations,” Yost said. ”All three runs came on sac flies on pitches that were up.”

Every Blue Jays starter had at least one hit as Toronto won for the fourth time in six games. The Blue Jays are 6-1 against Kansas City this season and have won nine of the past 12 meetings dating to 2011.

Jeff Francoeur’s RBI triple in the seventh provided the only run of the game for the Royals, who have lost five of six.

”You give (Villanueva) credit for doing what he did but our offense just didn’t do it today,” Kansas City’s Alex Gordon said.

Toronto opened the scoring in the second when Rajai Davis tripled and scored on Kelly Johnson’s sacrifice fly.

The Blue Jays added two more in the third. Edwin Encarnacion led off with a ground ball to second and was safe when Mendoza and Eric Hosmer got tangled up at first, with Mendoza catching the throw by failing to step on the base.

”I was kind of late getting over to the bag,” Hosmer said. ”Me and Mendy kind of called it at the same time. I think I just broke too late and probably should have let Mendy take care of that right there.”

Yost saw it differently from the dugout.

”Mendoza has got to get out of the way,” Yost said. ”I could hear (Hosmer) screaming ‘I got it, I got it,’ and if I can hear him, Mendy’s just got to put on the brakes as best he can and let Hos take the play.”

Adam Lind followed with a double, sending Encarnacion to third, before Escobar and Davis hit back-to-back sacrifice flies.

”We shortened up the infield to try to take advantage of his good two-seamer and keep the ball on the ground and see if we could cut off one or two of those runs,” Yost said. ”All three of those pitches he got up.”

Escobar added an insurance run in the eighth with a two-out RBI single off Kelvin Herrera.

”I thought we did an excellent job of manufacturing some runs,” Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.

Starting for the second time this season after making 22 relief appearances, Villanueva (3-0) allowed just four hits, three of them singles. He walked none and matched a season-high with seven strikeouts.

”Carlos did an outstanding job,” Farrell said. ”He was efficient. To give us the six innings was obviously a plus.”

Jason Frasor replaced Villanueva in the seventh but couldn’t keep the shutout bid alive. Moustakas hit a two-out single and scored when Francoeur tripled to left on a ball that skipped past Davis and rolled all the way to the wall.

Darren Oliver pitched the eighth and Casey Janssen finished in the ninth for his 11th save in 12 opportunities.

Coming off a win over Minnesota in his last start, Royals right-hander Luis Mendoza pitched well but was unable to earn consecutive victories for the first time this season. Mendoza (3-5) allowed three runs and nine hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out a career-high nine.

— Associated Press —

Mike Moustakas snapped out of his slump, and then some.

Moustakas hit his first career grand slam, Everett Teaford pitched seven innings for his first win of the season and the Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-3 on Monday night.

Hitless in 14 at-bats after going 0 for 8 in Saturday’s doubleheader at Minnesota, Moustakas was held out of Sunday’s series finale, with Royals manager Ned Yost giving him a chance to ”catch his breath.”

Moustakas must have breathed deeply.

After striking out his first time up, he hit an RBI double the next time. He then launched a grand slam to highlight Kansas City’s five-run seventh, giving him a career-best five RBIs.

”It was really cool,” Moustakas said. ”I got a good pitch to hit, got a fastball over the middle of the plate and just tried not to do too much with it.”

Moustakas said teammates and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer had been trying to keep him encouraged, but nothing helped more than snapping his hitless streak with his third-inning double.

”That was big,” he said. ”It helped me a lot.”

Salvador Perez added a two-run homer as the Royals ended a three-game losing streak, matched their season high with 14 hits and beat Toronto for the first time in five meetings this season.

Jose Bautista hit his major league-leading 27th home run and Colby Rasmus hit a solo shot off the facing of the fifth deck but it wasn’t enough for the Blue Jays, who lost for the fifth time in seven games.

Teaford (1-0) allowed three runs and five hits for his first win since last September. He walked two and struck out two.

”For the most part I thought he pitched very, very well,” Yost said. ”I’m very pleased with him.”

Teaford said Kansas City’s offensive outburst made his job easy.

”When you get 11 runs, it’s easy to pitch,” Teaford said.

Kelvin Herrera worked the eighth and Tim Collins finished in the ninth as the Royals won for the fifth time in eight games.

Ricky Romero (8-3) lost at home for the first time in almost a year, giving up eight runs and a season-high 11 hits in six-plus innings. Romero, who suffered consecutive losses for the first time this season, also allowed eight runs in last Wednesday’s loss at Boston.

A downcast Romero said he’s working hard between starts, but still feels as if he’s stuck in quicksand.

”Every time you just keep getting deeper and deeper and you don’t know how to get out of it,” he said.

Romero came in unbeaten in 14 starts at Rogers Centre since losing a 4-1 decision to the Yankees on July 16, 2011, and was handed an early lead when Brett Lawrie scored on Yunel Escobar’s bases-loaded groundout in the first.

”Teaford did a great job of getting out of that first inning only giving up one,” Yost said. ”That could have been some damage right there.”

Romero couldn’t hold the lead, however, and Perez quickly put the Royals in front with his third homer, a two-out line drive that barely cleared the left-field fence.

”He hit it so hard it didn’t think it had enough height to get out but it got out and that was huge,” Yost said. ”It did turn the momentum around.”

Kansas City added two more in the third on back-to-back RBI doubles by Yuniesky Betancourt and Moustakas.

Bautista made it 4-2 with a solo drive to center in the bottom half, but the Royals piled on with two more in the fourth. Alex Gordon’s RBI single drove in Perez and Jason Bourgeois scored on a wild pitch.

Rasmus cut it to 6-3 with a booming homer off Teaford in the fifth, a two-out drive that hit off the facing of the fifth deck in right field, his 16th of the season and second in two days.

Asked whether Rasmus’ drive was the longest home run he’s ever allowed, Teaford joked that he would ”have to check air traffic control.”

Kansas City chased Romero and put the game out of reach with a five-run seventh. Alcides Escobar led off with a walk, Eric Hosmer doubled and David Pauley came on to replace Romero. Pauley hit Billy Butler to load the bases, gave up an RBI single to Betancourt, then surrendered a first-pitch homer to Moustakas, his 14th.

”That was our first grand slam of the year and it came at a great time,” Yost said.

— Associated Press —

Joe Mauer will be representing the Minnesota Twins at the All-Star Game. Josh Willingham, however, might be the team’s most valuable player at this point.

He came through again in the clutch Sunday.

Trevor Plouffe homered twice, Willingham and Drew Butera each connected and the Twins came back from four runs down to take a big lead, then held off the Kansas City Royals 10-8.

With one run already across in the sixth, Willingham hit a three-run homer to tie it at 5. Two batters later, Plouffe hit a solo shot for his second of the day.

Willingham, who signed a three-year deal in December to basically replace Michael Cuddyer at a lower price, has 17 home runs and a team-leading 55 RBIs.

”The only thing I can say is I’m happy with the way my season’s gone so far. Obviously, we want to keep winning as a team,” he said. ”(Joe’s) going to represent this team well.”

Others in the clubhouse were more forthright in their disappointment.

”He’s been there from Day One, he’s been carrying the load for our baseball team an awful lot,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. ”I sure was hoping he would get a chance to play in an All-Star game. He’s very deserving of it and he just added onto his numbers today.”

Said Plouffe: ”Joe is obviously having a great year and deserves it, and I think Josh deserves it just as much. I’m not happy to see that he didn’t make it because I think he’s been carrying our team all year.”

Plouffe also hit a solo homer in the second inning. Butera added a three-run shot in the eighth for a 10-5 lead.

”I don’t get tired of seeing three or four home runs a game, especially if it’s our team,” Gardenhire said.

The first three Minnesota home runs came off Bruce Chen (7-7), who had mostly breezed through the first five innings.

Chen, who had allowed just one earned run in each of his last two starts, gave up six earned runs and six hits in 5 2-3 innings. Irving Falu drove in four runs for the Royals.

Reliever Jeff Gray (4-0) got the last two outs of the sixth and the first of the seventh for Minnesota.

Brian Dozier led off the Twins’ sixth with his first career triple and scored on a squeeze bunt by Denard Span. Jamey Carroll walked and Mauer singled up the middle before Willingham hit a 416-foot home run, his 17th of the season.

Plouffe’s second home run was his 18th of the season. Thirteen of them have come since June 1.

”I’m not trying to hit home runs. I can tell you that much,” he said.

Span added an RBI single in the seventh.

Twins starter Francisco Liriano gave up five runs – four earned – in 5 1-3 innings.

Liriano said he’s been more relaxed since rejoining the rotation in late May, which has led to greater confidence. He was that way early, cruising through three innings but danced with danger the next three.

The left-hander gave up a single to Billy Butler leading off the fourth and walked Yuniesky Betancourt two batters later, prompting a mound visit from Butera. After a single by Eric Hosmer loaded the bases, a sacrifice fly by Brayan Pena tied it at 1. But Jason Bourgeois struck out to end the threat.

A double play helped Liriano escape a fifth-inning jam, but he didn’t get that in the sixth.

Betancourt singled with one out and Hosmer was hit by a pitch, before a batted ball by Pena deflected off Liriano for an infield single to load the bases. A single by Bourgeois off the glove of first baseman Justin Morneau scored two – the latter on an error by right fielder Darin Mastroianni who overran the ball.

Liriano was replaced by Gray, who promptly gave up a two-run double to Falu to make it 5-1.

”It’s just one of those days,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said.

Pena added an RBI single and Falu a two-run single in the ninth against Glen Perkins.

Butler, the Royals’ All-Star, was 1 for 4, including a strikeout with two runners on in the eighth inning.

”It’s a good feeling,” he said of his selection. ”It’s just tough when you have a game like that, it puts a damper on things. It’s an honor to do it, especially when we’re hosting it, so I get to do it in front of my hometown fans.”

— Associated Press —