James Shields admitted that it felt a little weird when he stepped on the mound for Kansas City on Tuesday night, peered into the batter’s box and saw a former Rays teammate standing at the plate.

”That’s a team over that knows me real well,” Shields said.

Turns out Shields knows them even better.

After allowing a two-run homer to Matt Joyce in the first, Shields only allowed three more hits over the next six innings. That kept the Royals in the game long enough for Mike Moustakas to hit a go-ahead two-run homer and spur Kansas City to an 8-2 victory over Tampa Bay in the series opener.

”It was pretty obvious the emotion was really, really high,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”James has really bonded with his teammates, and I think his teammates knew how big of a game it was for him.”

Kansas City has been looking for a legitimate No. 1 starter for years, and finally made the bold decision in December to acquire Shields and fellow right-hander Wade Davis from Tampa Bay for a package of prospects that included minor league player of the year Wil Myers.

The Rays’ career leader in just about every significant pitching category, Shields (2-2) hasn’t done anything to disappoint his new organization. He lost 1-0 to the White Sox on opening day, tossed a complete game in a 3-2 loss to Toronto, and has gone at least six innings in every start.

On Tuesday night, he helped the Royals snap a two-game skid and finish 14-10 in April, a dramatic improvement from the 6-15 mark that they carried into May a year ago.

”He looked a little different standing out there in a different uniform,” said the Rays’ Desmond Jennings. ”He was mixing up his pitches – he was Shields. He’s good, man.”

Early on, Shields may have been too amped up facing his former team.

Jennings singled off his first pitch and Joyce followed with his homer over the right-field wall. It was the 15th straight game in which Tampa Bay hit a home run, tying the franchise record.

”The first hit of the game, a little check-swing by Des, and I fell behind the count against Joyce, and you can’t do that,” Shields said. ”I knew I had to grind it out.”

Meanwhile, Alex Cobb (3-2) was keeping the Royals’ scuffling offense at bay.

The Rays’ starter allowed just four hits over the first five innings, and at one point, the only ball hit out of the infield over a span of 12 batters was a measly single by Elliott Johnson.

”He threw the ball great for them, mixing his pitches,” Moustakas said. ”One inning, you know, kind of turned the game around for us.”

That inning came in the sixth.

Cobb had retired the first two batters Eric Hosmer doubled and Lorenzo Cain drove him in with a single, snapping the Royals’ streak of 15 consecutive scoreless innings.

Moustakas then connected against Cobb over the right-field fence for his first homer since Sept. 14, a span of 129 at-bats. Jeff Francoeur followed with a double and Salvador Perez’s RBI single made it 4-2. Cobb was lifted when Johnson singled again, ending his night after 5 2-3 innings.

”When I walked off the mound, I think that was the most angry I’ve ever been after a game,” said Cobb, who pitched into the ninth inning against the Yankees his last time out. ”I felt like from pitch number-one, I was going to have a smooth, easy-sailing game and go as deep as I could.”

Cobb wound up allowing four runs on 10 hits.

”It fell apart very quickly and that was unusual to see,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. ”Shields was really good. Cobb was outstanding to that moment.”

The Royals built a cushion in the seventh off Rays reliever Brandon Gomes. Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, and Hosmer scored from third when Cain stole second and catcher Jose Molina threw the ball into center field.

Francoeur followed with an RBI triple, giving the Royals a 7-2 lead and Shields the rest of the night off. The Kansas City bullpen pitched two scoreless innings to finish things up.

”The guys had my back – they always do – and that’s what this team is all about,” Shields said. ”We’re real resilient. We had a couple of tough losses, but we fought back hard tonight. We have a lot of character on this team and we showed it again tonight.”

— Associated Press —

From the moment that Ubaldo Jimenez started to warm up in the bullpen, and noticed the run on his fastball, he had a pretty good idea that this night would be unlike any other this season.

Any other in quite a while, for that matter.

The Indians’ right-hander baffled the Kansas City Royals while pitching into the eighth inning, Ryan Raburn belted two home runs to pace the Cleveland offense, and the result was a 9-0 win Monday night that salvaged a split of a four-game series.

”It felt really good,” said Jimenez, who hadn’t won in his past 12 starts. ”When I saw the run on my fastball, I said, ‘We have to take advantage of that.”’

Jimenez (1-2) certainly did, allowing only two walks and an infield single by Billy Butler over his first seven innings.

Along the way, he started to resemble the pitcher who once threw a no-hitter for the Colorado Rockies and earned a spot in the All-Star game.

”You’re always looking to be encouraged,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, ”but we flew right past encouraged and got sideways. … That was just so much delight tonight.”

The Royals couldn’t have gotten a more different outing from Wade Davis.

The right-hander was shelled for the second straight start, this time allowing eight runs and 12 hits and three walks in 4 2-3 innings. Davis (2-2) only last 3 2-3 innings his last time out.

”I made some bad decisions and didn’t execute,” Davis said.

The Royals won the first two games of the series, but were outscored 19-3 over the final two, unable to solve spot starter Corey Kluber on Sunday night and baffled by Jimenez on Monday.

A former All-Star, Jimenez has struggled mightily over the past couple of years, and hadn’t won a game since Aug. 9, 2012. He’d lost his last eight decisions, and had been especially dreadful of late, allowing 18 earned runs in 11 innings over his past three outings.

The Royals couldn’t solve him, though.

Jimenez faced the minimum number of batters through the first three innings, and would have been flirting with another no-hitter had Butler not hit a grounder to the right of shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera with two gone in the fourth. Cabrera was too deep in the hole to throw out Butler at first base, resulting in the Royals’ only hit until the eighth inning.

”Any time you have an outing like Ubaldo’s,” Raburn said, ”it makes it all more fun.”

Jason Kipnis hit his first home run since Sept. 13 with one out in the first for Cleveland, and Michael Brantley’s leadoff double and a base hit by Cabrera in the third made it 2-0.

Davis kept minimizing the damage until the fifth, when Brantley’s one-out double again stirred up trouble. Kipnis walked and Cabrera followed with an RBI double. Mark Reynolds added a two-out base hit, and Carlos Santana’s run-scoring double pushed Cleveland’s lead to 5-0 lead.

Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland came out to visit Davis, but it didn’t do much good. Raburn’s three-run shot, his first homer since May 15, 2012, finally chased him from the game.

”A tough night. They hit some good pitches off Wade, but they hit some mistakes, too,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”Wade wasn’t up in the zone, but a lot of the balls they hit were catching a little too much of the plate down.”

Mike Moustakas doubled leading off the eighth against Jimenez, and a single by Jeff Francoeur finally ended his night. Reliever Nick Hagadone left both runners stranded by retiring three straight batters, though, preserving Jimenez’s fine performance.

”He threw the ball well,” Moustakas said. ”He got ahead of us early and mixed his pitches well. That’s a great pitcher out there. His track record speaks for itself. We had an off-day. He was mixing in three or four pitches. He had a good sinker with good action. He was getting ahead 0-1 and putting us in a hole nearly every at-bat.”

— Associated Press —