KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Danny Duffy’s fastball was too much for the Toronto Blue Jays’ power hitters.

Duffy pitched six sharp innings to pick up his first victory in more than two months as the Kansas City Royals beat the Jays 3-0 Friday night.

Duffy (3-4) shut down a Blue Jays offense which leads the majors with 470 runs. He gave up four singles while walking three and hitting a batter to earn his first victory since beating Detroit on April 30.

“I wasn’t really executing a whole lot, but my fastball was good enough to get in on guys and riding a little bit,” Duffy said. “With the life I had on my fastball, I was able to get a couple of first pitch ground outs, a couple of more than I’m used to getting.

“That’s the way I needed to pitch. With how much thump they have and how many good hitters they have, keep the ball down, put a little sink on it, try to get them to roll over it and they did tonight.”

The Royals have won six straight to improve to an American League-best 51-34.

“Duffy maneuvered through a real tough lineup,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Eric Hosmer went 4 for 4, his first four-hit game of the season and his eighth career game with at least four hits. Salvador Perez, Alex Rios and Alcides Escobar each had two hits and an RBI.

Blue Jays right-hander Marco Estrada (6-5), who did not allow a hit until the eighth inning in two late June starts, gave up a season-high nine hits.

“It’s a long season and I know that a lot of times it’s going to feel like the changeup’s not there,” Estrada said. “I’ve just got to fight through it and work hard to get it back to the way it should be. I think I’m on the right path.”

The Blue Jays, 3-7 in July, dropped below .500 for the first time since June 8.

Rios’ double in the second scored Salvador Perez with the first run.

Escobar’s two-out fourth inning single brought home Rios to make it 2-0.

Perez homered, his 15th, in the eighth off reliever Ryan Tepera.

Duffy was in trouble only in the fourth when he walked Danny Valencia and Russell Martin singled to begin the inning, but Duffy retired the next three batters.

“You could probably say he was effectively wild,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He’s got a good arm. He clutched up and made good pitches when he needed, good changeups. We had those chances, but it just didn’t happen.”

After Duffy exited, Royals relievers Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland completed the shutout. Holland struck out the side in the ninth for his 18th save in 20 opportunities.

Rain delayed the beginning of the game for 2 hours, 7 minutes.

ROYALS RECORD

The Royals’ 51 victories before the break matches a club record. The 1976 and 2003 clubs also won 51 before the All-Star Game.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: Rookie RHP Aaron Sanchez (strained right latissimus dorsi) will throw 50 pitches for Advance-A Dunedin (Florida) on Saturday. If all goes well, he will report to Triple-A Buffalo for a Thursday for a rehab start.

Royals: 3B Mike Moustakas was reinstated from the bereavement/family medical emergency list after missing four games. Moustakas went 0 for 4 in his return. INF Cheslor Cuthbert was optioned to Triple-A Omaha and will play in the Future’s All-Star game Sunday in Cincinnati.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: LHP Mark Buerhle, 4-1 in his past eight starts, will start Saturday.

Royals: RHP Chris Young will be working on three days for the fourth time in his career.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jarrod Dyson did his best impression of Alex Gordon with his glove. Lorenzo Cain and Salvador Perez did the same with their bats.

Along with a strong return from the disabled list for right-hander Yordano Ventura, the Kansas City Royals proved with an 8-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday that they could be just fine without their injured star outfielder.

“We do have a confident team here,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We think we can get through these things. We think we have the ability to overcome these things.”

Earlier in the day, the Royals announced that Gordon would miss at least eight weeks with a several strained groin muscle. Even in the best-case scenario, that would put his return at some point in September, when the Royals hope to be in the thick of the playoff chase.

In the meantime, they’ll have to do without him.

“Next guy in line has to step up. That’s it,” said Dyson, who started in Gordon’s place and made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch at the wall in left to set the tone in the first inning.

Ventura (4-6) allowed three runs and four hits and three walks, striking out four. It was his first start since June 12, when an elbow condition began causing numbness in his hand.

“My arm felt good,” he said through a translator. “It was strong.”

Eric Hosmer, Cheslor Cuthbert and Kendrys Morales also drove in runs off Nathan Karns (4-5), the latest Rays starter to get pummeled by Kansas City. The Royals scored at least seven runs in every game of their first four-game sweep since September 2008, against Seattle.

Meanwhile, the Rays were swept in a four-game set for the second time in two weeks, after Cleveland did it June 29-July 2. Tampa Bay has lost 11 of 12 overall.

“It’s just one of those parts of the season that no one can really figure out why we’re there and how we’ve got here,” Karns said, “but we’re here.”

Even without Gordon’s hot bat in the lineup, the Royals struck first for the first time during their eight games this homestand. Hosmer doubled home Alcides Escobar in the first inning, and Cain followed with his two-run shot into the stands in left field.

All three runs were scored in the first five pitches.

The Royals tacked on another run in the second when Cuthbert tripled to right.

Ventura was cruising along through four innings, shutting out Tampa Bay — which had not scored a single run to support Karns in his past three starts.

But the Rays finally broke through in the fifth when David DeJesus and Asdrubal Cabrera strung together hits and Kevin Kiermaier and Rene Rivera walked to force in a run. John Jaso and Grady Sizemore added sacrifice flies to get Tampa Bay within 4-3.

The Royals answered with three runs in the bottom half. Morales hit a sacrifice fly to deep center, and Perez lined his two-run shot into the bullpen in left.

Karns allowed six runs and nine hits in six innings, the latest in a string of lousy Tampa Bay starts. Matt Moore and Matt Andriese failed to make it five innings the first two games of the series, and Chris Archer allowed a career-high nine runs Wednesday night.

Kansas City piled up 33 runs total in the four-game set, more than the reigning AL champions had scored in their previous 10 games combined.

“No excuse, `cause sometimes you’ve got to make your own break,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It hasn’t been going well for us, obviously. We’ve had times throughout the season where it has and now it’s not going that well. We need to get home and hopefully change that around.”

SHH, KEEP QUIET

Cain was ejected prior to the eighth inning for arguing balls and strikes from the dugout. It was his second ejection of the season. Paulo Orlando replaced him in the lineup.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: Jaso came off the DL for the series opener and went 7 for 12 with a pair of walks. He had been out since the first week of the season with a bruised wrist.

Royals: LHP Jason Vargas (left flexor strain) will make a rehab start for Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Monday. The plan is to activate him from the DL after the All-Star break.

UP NEXT

Rays: RHP Erasmo Ramirez will start against Houston on Friday night.

Royals: LHP Danny Duffy will be on the mound against Toronto on Friday night.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Royals manager Ned Yost joked that nobody had better steal Alex Gordon’s crutches, only to watch his star outfielder walk slowly into a news conference without any Thursday.

The doctors may be saying that Gordon will be out for eight weeks with a severe groin strain, but he already seemed to defy them just one day after getting hurt.

”I’m going to do everything I can to get back out there quicker,” he said.

Gordon was injured in the fourth inning of Wednesday night’s game against Tampa Bay. He crumpled to the field near the warning track and lay there for several minutes, eventually needing a cart to leave the field. He later underwent an MRI that revealed the extent of the injury.

”The news is obviously tough. I mean, I want to be out there every day,” he said. ”I knew it wasn’t good, especially with the season we’re having. To be carted off and thinking that’s going to be taken away for a while, it’s frustrating.”

Yost said that the MRI revealed a ”two-plus groin strain,” and that the one positive is that Gordon will not need surgery.

Still, the clubhouse leader is supposed to be on crutches for a while, and he will almost certainly do no baseball activities for several weeks.

When asked whether the eight-week timeframe given by the doctors meant Gordon would be back in time for regular-season games, Yost said that he simply didn’t know.

”We have no way of determining that,” he said. ”We just have to go week to week.”

The Royals put Gordon on the disabled list prior to Thursday’s series finale against the Rays, one of several roster moves they made.

Right-hander Yordano Ventura was activated from the DL to make the start, right-hander Aaron Brooks was optioned to Triple-A Omaha and left-hander Brandon Finnegan was recalled from the same club.
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Royals outfielder Gordon goes on DL; Ventura reins …
Kansas City Royals left fielder Alex Gordon is carted off the field after sustaining an injury while …

Filling Gordon’s void in the Royals lineup wasn’t all Yost had to worry about, either: He is also the manager of the American League team for Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

After spending Thursday morning pondering replacements for Gordon, who was due to start in Cincinnati, Yost chose Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner – one of the five ”final vote” candidates.

”That’s another crazy thing about this,” Yost said. ”I knew as soon as Gordo went down, this was going to affect both of my teams. And it was going to be a lot more homework.”

Still, the thought that he put into his All-Star team seemed to be secondary to the thought that he was giving Gordon, one of the most respected players in the clubhouse.

”Put it this way, when I really screw up in a game, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and have this pit in my stomach, right?” Yost said. ”I woke up last night and had that horrible feeling in my stomach, and I said, ‘Wait a minute, I didn’t screw up. And we’re not on a losing streak.’ And then it hit me, Alex Gordon. So it runs deep.”

Not only is the four-time Gold Glove winner one of the best defensive players in baseball, he was also the Royals’ hottest hitter. He had seven hits, reached base eight times and drove in six runs during a doubleheader sweep of Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

”It’s just devastating,” said Jarrod Dyson, who started in Gordon’s place Thursday. ”I got a chance to talk to Gordo before I left the clubhouse. We just wish him the best. Our prayers go out to the guy. We stick together around here.”

Yost said that Dyson and Paulo Orlando would handle the vacant spot in the outfield, though the Royals also still could make a move prior to the trade deadline.

In some positive injury news, Ventura had no issues going five innings in an 8-3 victory on Thursday that finished off a four-game sweep of Tampa Bay. The hard-throwing right-hander had been struggling before going on the DL with the elbow issue.

The Royals are also due to get Jason Vargas, out with a left flexor strain, back from the DL after the All-Star break. He had no problems after a 60-pitch simulated game Wednesday, and will make a rehab start Monday for Double-A Northwest Arkansas so he can face live hitters.

The return of those two starters should also help overcome Gordon’s injury.

”That always helps. That’ll be a key part of it,” Yost said. ”When you lose a key player like that, everybody has to pitch in a little bit.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals’ Alex Gordon has earned four Gold Gloves by making the spectacular look routine, whether it’s a diving catch or robbing someone of extra bases by running into the wall.

Every time, the All-Star left fielder seems to pop right back up.

When stayed down Wednesday night, first baseman Eric Hosmer knew something was wrong.

“His tolerance of pain,” Hosmer said, “he can handle a lot.”

In a scary moment for AL Central-leading Kansas City, Gordon had to be carted off the field in the fourth inning of a 9-7 victory over Tampa Bay. He was diagnosed with a severe groin strain, one that manager Ned Yost feared could sideline him for months.

“He heard it pop, which isn’t good,” Yost said. “The doctors didn’t think it detached from the bone, which is a good thing. But it kind of took the wind out of the sails.”

Fortunately for the Royals, they got the wind back.

Lorenzo Cain and Jarrod Dyson each hit a two-run homer, Alcides Escobar had four hits and Kansas City pounded away on All-Star Chris Archer before holding on for the victory.

Gordon’s injury came as he was chasing Logan Forsythe’s inside-the-park homer, but Dyson countered with another inside-the-park homer two innings later. It was the first time there were two in one game since the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa and Pirates’ Tony Womack did it on May 26, 1997.

“Dyson gave us a big lift, as he always does,” said Jeremy Guthrie (7-5), who allowed three earned runs in six-plus innings. “He probably saved the game for us.”

Archer (9-6) allowed a career-high nine runs and 11 hits over six innings. The right-hander had only given up four runs total in seven road starts this season.

Tampa Bay, swept in a doubleheader Tuesday, fell for the 10th time in 11 games.

“It’s just disappointing in the fact I didn’t hardly give my team a chance to win. We put up seven runs and when we usually do that we win,” Archer said. “That boils down to me not executing pitches. They did find some holes, but they also hit some balls hard.”

Forsythe’s home run tied it at 2, and the Rays added another run later in the inning. But Dyson threw out John Jaso trying to score on a fly out to left field, and that seemed to pick up Kansas City’s spirits.

“We needed to tack on runs right there and we didn’t,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Jaso hits a bullet to the left fielder and we’re not at least able to get the sac fly, if not more.”

The Royals came back with five runs in the fifth.

Cheslor Cuthbert started the rally with a one-out walk, and Escobar lined a sharp single off Archer’s ankle. The Rays’ ace hobbled around a bit but stayed in the game, and appeared to be fine when he fanned Dyson for the second out.

Cain, who homered in the third, followed with an RBI single deep in the hole behind second base. Eric Hosmer added a run-scoring single and Kendrys Morales had a two-run double before Salvador Perez hit a flare into shallow right field to make it 7-3.

The Royals padded their lead the next inning when Dyson followed a single by Escobar with a line drive into the left-field corner. David DeJesus had trouble handling it and Dyson sped home.

It was the light-hitting Dyson’s first homer since June 25, 2014, a span of 252 at-bats.

“My emotions were, `Run, Dice, run!” Yost said. “In four years as a third base coach in Atlanta, I don’t think I ever had an inside-the-park home run. To see two in one game, that’s pretty amazing.”

ONE-SIDED SERIES

Kansas City improved to 17-5 against Tampa Bay since 2012, including an 11-1 mark at Kauffman Stadium. The three wins this homestand have all come after the Rays scored first.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: RHP Jake Odorizzi (strained left oblique) will be activated to start Saturday against Houston, manager Kevin Cash said. Matt Moore will start on Sunday.

Royals: LHP Jason Vargas (left flexor strain) threw 60 pitches in a simulated game. He will make a rehab start for Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Monday, Yost said.

UP NEXT

Rays: RHP Nathan Karns starts the series finale in search of his first win since June 19.

Royals: RHP Yordano Ventura returns from the DL to start for the first time since June 12. He has been out with ulnar neuritis, a condition that caused numbness in his hand.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alcides Escobar hit a bases-loaded double, Alex Gordon matched a career high with four RBI and the Kansas City Royals cruised to a 7-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday and a sweep of their day-night doubleheader.

Escobar fell behind 0-2 against Brandon Gomes (1-4) in the sixth inning before battling back to a full count. On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Escobar yanked a fair ball just down the third-base line, emptying the bases and breaking a 1-all deadlock.

Brandon Finnegan (2-0), Luke Hochevar and Ryan Madson made the lead stand in relief of Royals starter Edinson Volquez, who allowed only John Jaso’s homer in five innings.

The victory in Game 2 came after Paulo Orlando hit a ninth-inning grand slam to give Kansas City a 9-5 win in the opener. It also stuck Tampa Bay with its ninth loss in 10 games.

The doubleheader was caused by a massive storm that caused numerous tornado warnings in the Kansas City area Monday night. While it was cloudy and dry for Game 1 on Tuesday, steady rain fell throughout the nightcap, forcing many fans to watch from the concourse.

In the opener, the Rays had rallied to tie it at 5 before Orlando came to the plate in the ninth. All-Star closer Brad Boxberger (4-5) threw him a changeup and the Brazilian pounded it into the bullpen in left for his first career slam.

“Just one of those days when I couldn’t make a pitch when I needed to,” Boxberger said.

The Rays had just tied the game off Royals closer Greg Holland (3-0), who allowed a leadoff triple to Kevin Kiermaier in the ninth but looked as if he may get bailed out.

Kiermaier slid over the bag and was tagged, but umpire Chris Segal ruled he got back in time. The call stood after a review of 4 minutes, 12 seconds. Holland then walked Curt Casali and struck out Grady Sizemore before a wild pitch allowed Kiermaier to score the tying run.

Gordon homered and Kendrys Morales also drove in a pair of runs for the Royals, who won despite playing an unorthodox lineup due to injuries and other circumstances.

All-Star outfielder Lorenzo Cain got the doubleheader off due to an ailing hamstring. Third baseman Mike Moustakas missed both games on the bereavement list. And All-Star catcher Salvador Perez got the opener off because he was due to start the nightcap.

James Loney and Evan Longoria each homered in the opener for Tampa Bay.

“It wasn’t our cleanest day,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said after Game 1, but summing up the doubleheader nicely. “We know we have to play clean baseball. We did not today.”

NEWS AND NOTES

Jaso had been on the DL since bruising his left wrist on opening day. … Royals 3B Cheslor Cuthbert started both games. He got his first career hit in the third inning of the opener. … The Royals have had five game-ending grand slams, the last by Justin Maxwell two years ago.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: RHP Jake Odorizzi (strained left oblique) made his second rehab start Monday at Triple-A Charlotte: He allowed two hits and a walk in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

Royals: LHP Jason Vargas (left flexor strain) was supposed to throw 60 pitches in a simulated game Tuesday. That will happen Wednesday because of the doubleheader.

UP NEXT

Rays: RHP Chris Archer (9-5) starts Wednesday against Kansas City for the first time since becoming an All-Star on Monday.

Royals: RHP Jeremy Guthrie (6-5) tries to beat Tampa Bay for the third straight time.

— Associated Press —