Jeremy Guthrie was on a roll – against the Yankees, no less. Neither hail nor sun shower was going to stop him. No way.

Guthrie neatly handled a nemesis and a 59-minute delay to pitch into the seventh inning, Billy Butler homered and the Kansas City Royals held on to beat New York 5-1 Monday night.

”Tremendous competitor,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said of Guthrie. ”He showed it today – to endure an hour rain delay and go out and throw at the level that he threw.”

All-Star Alex Gordon, David Lough and Johnny Giavotella each had RBI doubles, and Alcides Escobar added a run-scoring triple to help the Royals end a five-game skid against New York.

”It’s been tough every year I’ve been here to come in and get a win,” Butler said. ”It means a lot.”

Guthrie (8-6) gave up three hits over six innings, albeit to a Yankees lineup that had only four players that were with the team on opening day.

Leading 5-1, closer Greg Holland was needed in the ninth when Lyle Overbay walked and Luis Cruz singled to start the inning against Luke Hochevar. Holland gave up a hit to Chris Stewart to load the bases. But Holland struck out Eduardo Nunez, Brett Gardner and Zoilo Almonte to end it for his 21st save.

”Holly’s been lights out for us,” Yost said.

Guthrie twice struck out the newest member in pinstripes, Travis Ishikawa, before Overbay homered pinch hitting for the first baseman who was claimed off waivers from Baltimore on Sunday. Overbay’s 10th of the year was New York’s first long ball in six games.

”Not an easy lineup to pitch, too,” he said. ”Obviously they have their injuries now and are missing a lot of keys so you go out there and try to attack them as best as you can.”

Entering 4-9 with a 5.15 ERA against the Yankees in 17 appearances – 15 starts – Guthrie left with runners on first and third and two outs in the seventh. Tim Collins relieved and struck out pinch-hitter Nunez to protect a 3-1 lead.

Aaron Crow relieved Collins in the eighth with two on, two out and got Vernon Wells to ground out to second.

The Yankees have lost two in a row after a season-best six straight wins.

With the sun reflecting off the windows of a building beyond center field, rain and hail sent fans scurrying for cover in the bottom of the third inning. The quick moving cloud was gone before Phil Hughes (4-8) threw his first pitch of the fourth. Hughes retired three straight with the faintest of rainbows arcing over the scoreboard, then the rain returned.

After Guthrie got an out with his 37th pitch, crew chief Dana DeMuth called for the tarp. As ”Singin’ in the Rain” blared over the PA system, the grounds crew struggled to cover the increasingly muddy infield, getting stuck halfway then pulling the huge sheet off and starting again. The biggest cheer of the night – until Overbay’s homer in the seventh – came when the crew finished the job.

Guthrie’s previous outing was delayed by rain at the start for over 2 hours, 30 minutes, then for 12 more minutes in the seventh by a power outage. He was better prepared for the break this time.

”After last game I was trying treat it a little bit different, be a little more focused,” he said.

The right-hander threw every 10 to 15 minutes in the batting cage to stay warm, treating the time as if it were a game.

Guthrie completed the fourth on six pitches.

Adam Warren replaced Hughes to start the fifth. Hughes gave up two runs and four hits in his abbreviated outing.

”He had already thrown a lot and with him coming back second, it would have been an hour-and-15-minute break for him,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ”I wasn’t real comfortable bringing him back after an hour or so.”

Hughes would’ve liked to stay if only because he finally felt as if he had got in a groove after the second.

”It’s tough. I felt like I really found something,” he said. In the third and fourth innings I felt pretty good, but that’s baseball.”

Passed over for the Home Run Derby last year at the All-Star game in Kansas City by AL captain Robinson Cano, Butler sent a drive the opposite way to right field leading off the second. Fans relentlessly booed Cano at Butler’s home field during the competition last July. Captain of the AL home run team again this year, Cano again did not choose Butler – the Orioles’ Chris Davis and Detroit’s Prince Fielder were his first two picks announced Monday. But it would be hard to object this time. Butler’s long ball was only his seventh – and he’s not on the All-Star team.

An out later, Mike Moustakas lined an opposite-field double to left, and Lough made it 2-0 with a shot that just landed fair down the third base line for a double the opposite way.

Royals center fielder Jarrod Dyson helped preserve the 3-0 lead in sixth when he made a diving catch of Almonte’s sinking liner in right-center with Gardner on first.

”I think the game was won with the Dyson play,” Guthrie said.

Giavotella drove in a run in the seventh, and Gordon and Escobar had back-to-back RBIs in the ninth.

— Associated Press —

Josh Reddick homered and drove in four runs for the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. Jed Lowrie had three hits, including a homer of his own.

So when Eric Sogard went deep, who really cared?

”There was no home run tunnel or anything,” the light-hitting Sogard joked of a rather muted home run celebration that awaited him after rounding the bases during a 10-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. ”They were probably surprised I hit one.”

Sogard went without a homer in 260 at-bats, since April 27, 2012.

It was that kind of day for the Oakland offense, though. The A’s pounded out 15 hits, and everybody in the starting lineup except Chris Young had one against the Royals’ haphazard pitching.

”We got some runs early,” said Josh Donaldson, who had a pair of hits. ”Then it seemed like every time they got a run our offense would answer right back.”

A.J. Griffin (7-6) rebounded from a miserable start against the Cubs to go five innings for the A’s. The only damage he allowed came on solo homers by George Kottaras and Alex Gordon.

Jesse Chavez earned his first career save with four scoreless innings of relief.

”Saved the bullpen, that’s all I was trying to do,” Chavez said.

Luis Mendoza (2-5) allowed five runs in the second inning for the Royals, and was yanked to a round of boos after retiring just four batters. It was the right-hander’s shortest start in exactly five years – since an outing on July 7, 2008, when he was still with Texas.

”He fell behind early, which puts you in a defensive mode,” Kottaras said. ”Once he falls behind, hitters can look for a pitch in a certain zone and took advantage of it. It happens.”

It’s happened twice in a row now: Mendoza gave up four runs on six hits and four walks in just four innings his last time out against Cleveland. He hasn’t won since June 14 at Tampa Bay.

”A rough outing really for our pitching staff today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Mendoza’s struggles began with a single in the second by Yoenis Cespedes. John Jaso added a one-out walk and Reddick’s line drive to left gave Oakland a 2-0 lead.

Mendoza struck out Chris Young before another double by Sogard and back-to-back singles by Coco Crisp and Lowrie knocked him from the game. Chen came in from the bullpen and gave up another base hit to Josh Donaldson before finally getting out of the inning.

Kottaras got the home crowd energized with his homer in the second, but the A’s refused to let the Royals engineer another five-run comeback like they did Thursday against Cleveland. Jaso’s one-out single set the table for Reddick, who launched his fourth homer of the year.

After a breakthrough year in which he hit 32 homers, Reddick had been scuffling until he got to Kansas City. He was hitting just .210 with three homers and 25 RBIs in his first 57 games, but found the expansive outfield off Kauffman Stadium to be to his liking.

”Reddick’s been swinging the bat really well here recently,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said, ”and that’s the next step, to start driving the ball.”

Gordon, who missed the first game of the series after a scary collision with the outfield wall earlier in the week, validated his first All-Star nod a day earlier with his homer. His ninth of the season came with two outs in the fifth inning.

Lowrie answered it with a solo shot of his own in the sixth.

The Royals tried to rally again in the bottom half off A’s reliever Jerry Blevins. Mike Moustakas hit an RBI double and Miguel Tejada an RBI single in which he beat a throw to first with a head-first slide. Chavez ended the rally when he retired Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded.

Sogard’s two-run homer in the seventh ended any thoughts of another Royals comeback.

”We’re in the middle of a tough stretch,” Yost said. ”It started here. We’re 3-3 in this tough stretch. The Yankees are tough, a four-game series. And it’s going to be a tough three-game series in Cleveland. We’ve got to continue to play good baseball if we’re going to be successful this next week. We’re going to have to grind it out and try to find a way to win some ball games.”

— Associated Press —

Major League Baseball announced Saturday that Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon and catcher Salvador Perez have been named American League All-Stars.  Both Royals will be making their first All-Star appearances at the 79th annual Midsummer Classic at Citi Field in New York on Tuesday, July 16.  Both Gordon and Perez were elected to the team via the player vote.

This marks the first time since the 2003 All-Star Game that the Royals have had more than one player representative.  Gordon is the first KC outfielder to be selected to the team since Jermaine Dye in 2000, while Perez is the first Royals’ catcher to be named an All-Star since Darrell Porter in 1980.  Porter was also selected in 1978, but did not play, while the only other catcher in franchise history to attend the All-Star festivities was the first Royal All-Star, Ellie Rodriguez in 1969.

Gordon, a six-year veteran with Kansas City, is batting .290 with 15 doubles, 8 homers and 46 RBI in 81 games.  He came into play Saturday leading the American League in 2-out hitting (.374), tied with Alex Rios for the league-lead in outfield assists (8) and was 10th in the league with 29 multi-hit games.  He had a 12-game hitting streak earlier this season and had walk-off hits against Toronto (April 14), the Chicago White Sox (May 5) and Atlanta (June 26).

Perez is in his second full year in the Major Leagues and is hitting .302 with 15 doubles, 4 homers, 36 RBI in 71 games.  He ranks second among A.L. catchers in batting average (.302) and is third in the league with a .403 average with runners in scoring position.  He has thrown out 10 would-be base stealers, which is tied for third-most in the American League.  He had an 11-game hitting streak from June 5-15 and has 21 RBI since June 1.

— Royals Media Relations —

The Kansas City Royals are starting to embrace quite the never-say-quit mentality.

Trailing in the seventh inning? No need to worry.

Game tied in the eight? Perfect position.

Jarrod Dyson delivered an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs on Saturday, and stingy closer Greg Holland preserved the Royals’ scrappy 4-3 victory over Oakland with a perfect ninth inning that gave Kansas City its first win over the Athletics this season.

”Sometimes games aren’t going to go our way, but we aren’t going to hang our heads,” said Dyson, who snapped an 0-for-11 skid with three hits. ”We’re going to keep battling. You can see it in here, see it out there. Everybody is working hard every day.”

The Royals had rallied to tie the game on a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer in the seventh, and then loaded the bases on an error and a pair of walks by reliever Ryan Cook in the eighth.

Dyson, hardly known for his power, showed bunt on his first pitch from Cook (1-2) before hitting a grounder deep behind second base. Shortstop Adam Rosales fielded it cleanly but didn’t even bother with a throw as pinch runner Alcides Escobar scored the go-ahead run.

It was an error on Rosales that kept the inning alive.

”It’s going to stick with me for a little while,” he said.

Aaron Crow (6-3) worked the eighth and Holland handled the ninth for his 20th save, wrapping up Kansas City’s first win in five tries against Oakland this season.

”They’ve been grinder games. Their pitching staff is very, very good. Their starting rotation is very good,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”We just scrapped it. We scrapped it out.”

Mike Moustakas homered and Billy Butler drove in a run for the Royals, while Alex Gordon walked three times and reached on an error in his return to the lineup. He’d missed the last two games after a scary collision with the outfield wall Wednesday night against Cleveland.

”Once I got the Adrenaline going and did some work, it felt pretty good,” Gordon said.

Josh Donaldson homered and drove in two runs to lead the A’s, who struck right away when Josh Reddick sent an RBI single to center field in the first inning.

The Royals tried to get the run back in the bottom half when Miguel Tejada singled and reached second on a groundout. Moments later, Elliot Johnson hit a grounder toward third with two outs and appeared to be safe when the throw pulled first baseman Brandon Moss off the bag.

Umpire Marty Foster ruled him out, though, and never wavered from his decision despite some rather animated objections from Yost and first base coach Rusty Kuntz.

A bright sun and flat sky started to cause problems after that.

The A’s had two aboard with one out in the third when Donaldson hit a high popup down the right-field line. Johnson chased it from second and outfielder David Lough sprinted in from right while Hosmer tried to camp under it from first base – all to no avail.

The ball fell in fair territory, allowing John Jaso to score for a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Dyson led off with a weak pop foul behind the plate, but Jaso couldn’t locate the ball in the sun after discarding his mask. The A’s catcher comically had to cover his head with his glove while the ball plopped onto the field next to him.

Dyson followed with a single to right, and after a stolen base and errant pickoff throw, he scampered home from third on Butler’s groundout to get the Royals within 2-1.

Moustakas added his two-out homer in the fourth to tie the game, and Donaldson’s solo shot leading off the sixth restored Oakland’s one-run cushion. The Royals knotted the game again when they loaded the bases with one out in the seventh and Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly to center.

Jarrod Parker wound up going 6 1-3 innings for the A’s after leaving his last start with tightness in his right hamstring, but it was the bullpen that let them down.

”That was a very poor game,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. ”The way we started and the way we ended. A very bad game for us.”

— Associated Press —