Kris Medlen is perfectly happy throwing crisp, pinpoint 89-mph fastballs, especially if the alternative is to throw 100-mph heat while living on the edge.

That would be the life of Braves closer Craig Kimbrel.

Both of them did their duty on Tuesday night in Atlanta’s first visit to Kansas City. Medlen outpitched the Royals’ Ervin Santana to position himself for the win, and Kimbrel survived a shaky ninth to preserve a 4-3 victory in the opener of their two-game series.

”You know how stressful it is trying to locate 89 every pitch?” Medlen deadpanned. ”It’s not very fun, but it’s a tough skill to do. It’s why I’m hanging around.”

Why he’s excelling, too. Medlen (5-7) improved to 4-1 in June. The victory wasn’t without drama once he left the game, though.

Jordan Walden had to pitch around a leadoff walk to get out of the eighth inning, and Kimbrel got into the same trouble in the ninth. But he did one worse, allowing a single to David Lough and letting him swipe second base to put the go-ahead run in scoring position with nobody out.

Kimbrel recovered to strike out Elliot Johnson and Jarrod Dyson, and then intentionally walked Alex Gordon to load the bases for Alcides Escobar. He flied out to right on the first pitch he saw to end the game, giving Kimbrel his 11th straight save and 22nd of the season.

”Whenever you walk the leadoff batter in a one-run ballgame,” he said, ”it puts you in a sticky situation, but we were able to work out of it.”

Jason Heyward drove in a pair of runs with a double in the fifth, and then broke a seventh-inning tie with his solo shot off Tim Collins (2-2). It was his sixth homer of the season.

Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the Royals.

”We had a lot of opportunities,” Johnson said. ”We didn’t make the most of them.”

In a curious twist to interleague play, the Royals had played 142 games against NL teams at Kauffman Stadium without a visit by Atlanta. If not for last year’s All-Star Game at the K, longtime Braves third baseman Chipper Jones would have retired having never played in the park.

Their debut wound up being dominated by pitching.

The Royals scratched out their first run off Medlen in the first when Alex Gordon reached on a single, took second on an error and went to third on a sacrifice bunt. But he was caught in a rundown on a grounder by Hosmer, who reached second before Gordon was tagged out.

Hosmer scored on Billy Butler’s ensuing single.

That was all the Royals would muster off Medlen until Escobar managed a two-out single in the fifth. The resurgent Hosmer followed with his tying two-run shot over the right-field wall, his fourth home run of the season but third in 10 games.

It proved to be timely, too, coming just after the Braves pulled ahead.

Ervin Santana had struck out five through the first three innings, but began running into trouble the second time through the Braves’ power-packed lineup. But it wasn’t home runs that gave them the lead, but a series of singles and doubles.

Chris Johnson led off the fifth with a double, and Andrelton Simmons put runners on the corners with his base hit. Jordan Schafer tied the game 1-all on his double, and Heyward’s double down the right-field line gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.

”I felt very good the whole game,” Santana said. ”I just missed a couple of pitches, and they made good adjustments on them.”

Heyward didn’t hit his double particularly hard. The homer off Collins was crushed.

Heyward greeted a 0-2 pitch from the Royals’ diminutive left-hander with a ferocious swing, sending the ball soaring over the wall in right field and giving the Braves a 4-3 lead.

”I was just looking for a pitch in the zone to hit,” he said. ”Looking for a pitch in the zone to hit right there and try not to miss it. Put a good swing on it.”

A good enough swing to give Kimbrel a chance to create some ninth-inning drama.

”It’s not the way you draw it up,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the living-on-the-edge save, ”but we’ll take it.”

— Associated Press —

The Kansas City Royals announced Tuesday that left-handed pitcher Danny Duffy has been reinstated from the 60-day disabled list and optioned to Omaha. In order to make room for Duffy on the 40-man roster, the Royals have designated left-handed pitcher Francisley Bueno for assignment. Kansas City also announced that outfielder Quintin Berry has accepted his assignment to Triple-A Omaha.

Duffy, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound left-handed pitcher, has been sidelined the entire season recovering from “Tommy John” surgery.  Duffy, who is starting tonight for Omaha at Oklahoma City, has made 3 rehab starts. He has an 11.70 ERA with 8 walks and 10 strikeouts in 10.0 innings for the Storm Chasers.  Duffy made six starts for the Royals last season, sporting a 2-2 record with a 3.90 ERA, registering 28 strikeouts in 27.2 innings, before suffering an elbow injury on May 13, 2012.

Bueno was 1-2 with a 3.40 ERA in 23 appearances (1 start) for the Storm Chasers this season. The 5-foot-10 lefty was signed as a minor league free agent on November 17, 2011. He was originally signed by the Atlanta Braves as a non-drafted free agent in 2006.

Berry was claimed off waivers by the Royals on June 4 and designated for assignment on June 23. He has played in 9 games for the Storm Chasers, batting .194 with one homer, 4 RBI and 5 stolen bases.

— Royals Media Relations —

The Kansas City Royals followed up an improbable comeback with an even more unlikely win.

Their rally against the White Sox on Sunday began in the fifth inning, when substitute catcher George Kottaras and light-hitting outfielder Jarrod Dyson cracked the first back-to-back homers for the offensively challenged Royals all season.

The win happened after the White Sox had pulled back ahead, and included a couple timely hits against their ace reliever and a pair of errors that resulted in a three-run eighth inning.

The result was a 7-6 victory that allowed the Royals to avoid a three-game sweep.

”It was huge. I mean, we were on a four-game skid,” said the Royals’ David Lough, who scored one of tying run. ”For us to pull out that victory later in the game shows our resiliency.”

The White Sox had pulled ahead on a two-run double by Gordon Beckham in the seventh inning, and then brought in Jesse Crain for the eighth. He hadn’t allowed a run in 29 straight innings, but gave up consecutive singles to Mike Moustakas and Lough to start the inning.

Crain (2-2) committed the first error when he couldn’t field a sacrifice bunt by Elliot Johnson, loading the bases with nobody out. Crain managed to strike out Kottaras and Dyson to breathe easier, but then walked Alex Gordon to get Kansas City within a run.

The more costly error came moments later, when Alcides Escobar slapped a grounder toward shortstop that Alexei Ramirez allowed into left field to bring in the go-ahead runs.

”We have a habit of coming from behind to win baseball games and today was more of the same,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”Any win like that, especially this time of the year, is huge.”

Luke Hochevar (1-1) struck out two in a scoreless innings of relief for Kansas City, while Greg Holland pitched a perfect ninth for his 16th save in 18 chances.

”It’s big anytime you get a win and especially coming from behind,” Hochever said. ”That’s always a big pick-me-up for the club.”

Adam Dunn homered and drove in four runs to lead the White Sox, who were trying for their first road sweep since last September.

”It’s a tough way to lose a game,” Crain said. ”We had a chance to sweep the series, which we needed. We just have to look forward to the next game.”

Royals starter James Shields and White Sox counterpart Dylan Axelrod both endured rough afternoons, though they surely saw an exciting show once they left the game.

Shields threw six straight balls to start the game and things never got a whole lot better, his leadoff walk to Alejandro De Aza and a single later in the first inning turning into two quick runs when Dunn rapped a single off the glove of Eric Hosmer at first base.

The Royals’ ace then plunked Alex Rios in the back in the third inning, and Dunn made Shields pay again for his erratic ways with his no-doubt, two-run shot to center field.

It was the 20th homer for the hot-hitting Dunn, who trails only the Orioles’ Chris Davis and Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion for the most in the American League.

Shields wound up putting the leadoff batter on base in four of his five innings, and needed 97 pitches just to last that long. He departed without finishing six innings for the first time since last July 15 against Boston, a span of 30 consecutive starts.

The former All-Star hasn’t won in his last 10 outings.

”I guess I have to start another 29-game streak now,” he said. ”I’ve been pitching my butt off all season. I don’t really care (about wins) as long as we win the game.”

The Royals started moving in that direction in the bottom of the third inning on Gordon’s RBI single, and then pulled even against Axelrod during a three-run fifth inning.

The first two came on their back-to-back home runs – the 26th career homer for Kottaras, who was giving Salvador Perez the day off behind the plate, and just the third career shot for Dyson, who was making his first start since returning from the disabled list on Saturday.

”I put the barrel on the ball and it took off,” Dyson said.

Escobar kept the rally alive with a double, and Billy Butler’s two-out single through the left side of the infield tied the game 4-all and knocked Axelrod from the game.

Beckham’s double off Kelvin Herrera in the seventh inning pushed the White Sox back in front, but a bullpen – and a reliever – that has been stingy all month finally let them down.

”He’s semi-human,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. ”You know eventually there’s going to be a time or two when he’s going to give up a run or two. It’s just tough that it’s today.”

— Associated Press —