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Guthrie pitches CG, Royals complete sweep of D-Backs

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RoyalsPHOENIX (AP) — Through three innings Thursday night, Jeremy Guthrie looked shaky.

After that, he was perfect.

Guthrie retired the final 19 batters in Kansas City’s first complete game of the season, and the Royals beat Arizona 6-2 for a three-game interleague sweep of the Diamondbacks.

Guthrie (8-9) allowed seven hits, struck out four and walked none in his eighth career complete game.

“I think it’s the pitcher’s goal every time is to get as deep as they can,” he said. “I haven’t done that very well, especially the last couple of months. So it’s nice to have a high pitch count out there early but be able to settle in and get through some quick innings.”

As Guthrie finished off one batter after another, manager Ned Yost decided to just ride his starter as far as possible and rest his bullpen.

“We’re getting down to the point of the season where you know you’ve got to try to make sure everybody’s strong,” Yost said. “When you’ve got a pitcher that is throwing as good as he is, you try to take advantage of every pitch that he has in his tank.”

Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer and Alcides Escobar had a two-run single for the Royals, who have won four in a row and 12 of 15 to pull within 2 1/2 games of first-place Detroit in the AL Central. They were eight games out on July 21.

“Obviously we’re playing well and that’s all we can control,” Gordon said. “We haven’t really played Detroit in a while so we’re not really concerned where they’re at right now. We’re just trying to take care of our business and go from there.”

Vidal Nuno (2-8) lasted just four innings for Arizona, allowing five runs and seven hits. The left-hander is 0-3 with a 4.05 ERA in six starts since he was acquired in a trade with the Yankees that sent Brandon McCarthy to New York.

Kansas City (60-53) moved seven games above .500, matching its season high. It went 5-1 on a trip to Oakland and Arizona and is 33-26 on the road this season.

The Royals have won five consecutive series.

Jake Lamb, called up from Triple-A Reno earlier in the day, got his first major league hit and RBI when he singled in a run for the Diamondbacks in the third inning. Guthrie retired every batter after that.

“We got him in the beginning but later in the game he was throwing more cutters to the lefties,” Arizona’s David Peralta said. “He tried to get it in and jam us. We were trying to make an adjustment. It didn’t work this time for us, it worked for him.”

— Associated Press —

Chiefs use big plays to win preseason opener against Cincinnati

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ChiefsKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs rolled to the playoffs last season thanks largely to an opportunistic defense and an explosive special teams unit that accounted for nearly a touchdown a game.

Evidently, nothing has changed this preseason.

Sean Smith and Malcolm Bronson returned interceptions for scores, De’Anthony Thomas brought back a punt 80 yards for another touchdown and Kansas City held on to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 41-39 in their preseason opener Thursday night.

“We want to score touchdowns in all three phases of the game, and we were able to do a pretty nice job of that tonight,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, whose team had 11 such touchdowns last season. “In return, you have to cut back on some of these turnovers on the other side.”

Yes, the Chiefs also had three turnovers that led to 21 points, including an interception return by Dre Kirkpatrick during a first half that ended with the Chiefs leading 27-24.

“It’s tough to win football games like that,” Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said.

Andy Dalton was sharp in his only series for the Bengals after signing a new six-year deal this week. He hit wide receiver A.J. Green for a 53-yard pass to set up the opening field goal.

“We wanted to score a touchdown but we moved the ball well,” Dalton said. “We did some good things, some quick passes. Took a shot and hit A.J. on a deep one.”

Dalton quickly gave way to backup Jason Campbell, who was just 6 of 15 for 72 yards. And while he threw a pair of touchdown passes, Campbell also was responsible for the TDs by Smith and Bronson before getting banged up midway through the third quarter and exiting the game.

“We played good, but you still want to win,” Bengals defensive end Robert Geathers said.

Both teams played their starters sparingly, which is common in preseason openers. But the Bengals were also forced to use their backups to plug holes caused by injury.

Starting offensive linemen Andrew Whitworth, Clint Boling and Andre Smith, tight end Jermaine Gresham, wide receiver Marvin Jones and defensive tackle Geno Atkins all sat out the game.

Chiefs safety Eric Berry and defensive tackle Mike DeVito also did not suit up.

Alex Smith, in negotiations on his own long-term deal, struggled along with the rest of the Chiefs’ first-team offense. They went three-and-out on their opening series, and Smith was strip-sacked on their next possession to set up Campbell’s short TD toss to Brandon Tate.

That was just the start of an entertaining, back-and-forth half.

Albert Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards to set up Ryan Succop’s short field for Kansas City. After the Bengals stalled on their next possession, Thomas fielded the punt and spun away from Kirkpatrick before racing 80 yards for a tying touchdown.

“I was just focusing on looking the ball in,” he said. “I saw the lane and took it.”

On the next offensive play, Campbell was intercepted by Sean Smith — a former starter trying to win his job back — and he returned it 36 yards to give Kansas City a 17-10 lead.

Kirkpatrick atoned for his special teams flub when he intercepted a badly thrown ball by Chiefs backup Chase Daniel and returned it 40 yards for a TD. And after the Chiefs added another field goal, Campbell connected with Dane Sanzenbacher for another score and a 24-20 lead.

In the waning seconds of the half, Daniel found tight end Travis Kelce running open down the seam. The big tight end, who missed his rookie season to injury, hauled in the 69-yard TD pass.

Bronson returned his pick-6 early in the second half to give the Chiefs a 34-24 lead, and the teams traded fourth-quarter TDs before Cincinnati scored again in the final seconds.

“I’m not satisfied with the outcome but I saw a lot of positives, things we’ve got to work on and build from,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. “We’ve got some work to do. Open-field football for the first time gets everybody’s attention.”

— Associated Press —

Wainwright wins 14th as St. Louis defeats Boston 5-2

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CardsST. LOUIS (AP) — Adam Wainwright recovered from a shaky start to earn his 14th win, tying for the major league lead, and rookie Kolten Wong homered twice to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night.

Jhonny Peralta’s two-run double keyed a three-run first off Brandon Workman and Wong had his first multihomer game. The Cardinals took two of three from their stripped-down opponents, who beat them in the World Series last fall but are in last place in the AL East.

Wainwright (14-6) needed 66 pitches to slog through the first three innings after the start was delayed by rain for more than an hour for the second straight night. The 6-foot-7 right-hander retired 11 in a row before Boston put two on with two outs in the seventh.

Manager Mike Matheny left his ace in and Yoenis Cespedes took a third strike on a full-count curveball, catcher Tony Cruz sprinting to the dugout before home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom’s call.

Wainwright has won at least 14 games each of the last three seasons. Wily Peralta won his 14th game earlier Thursday for the NL Central-leading Brewers, who are one game ahead of St. Louis.

Workman (1-5) retired nine straight before Wong lined a 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall with one out in the fifth to put the Cardinals up 4-2. Wong then added his ninth homer in the seventh, a 423-foot shot off Craig Breslow.

Mike Napoli and Christian Vasquez each drove in a run in the third, Wainwright’s roughest inning. He had seven strikeouts and allowed seven hits, four of them in the third.

— Associated Press —

Moustakas leads KC past Arizona for another series win

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RoyalsPHOENIX (AP) — Mike Moustakas accounted for all of Kansas City’s runs with a long ball, a liner and a bit of hustle after a diving stop by Arizona second baseman Aaron Hill.

His hustle play was the one that made all the difference.

Moustakas homered and drove in his fourth run by beating a relay throw to first in the ninth inning, helping the Royals beat the Diamondbacks 4-3 Wednesday night to win their fifth straight series.

“He (Hill) made a great play on that and I’m just running down the line to get to first and get that run, which turned out to be pretty big,” Moustakas said.

Kansas City rolled over Arizona in the opener and had just enough offense for Yordana Ventura (9-8) to take the second game.

Moustakas, who was 1 for 13 to start the six-game road trip, hit a two-run homer off Josh Collmenter (8-6) in the third inning and added a run-scoring single off the right-hander in the fourth. He was initially called out on the groundball in the ninth inning, but a review showed his headfirst dive beat the throw, allowing Billy Butler to score for a 4-2 lead.

The Royals needed the extra run, too.

Closer Greg Holland gave up a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly to Mark Trumbo in the bottom half before closing out his 32nd save.

The scrappy victory was the Royals’ sixth in seven games, pulling them within 3 1-2 games of Detroit in the AL Central.

“This was a big win for us with Detroit losing,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Every game is huge.”

The Diamondbacks certainly had their chances, particularly against Ventura.

Miguel Montero had three of Arizona’s 12 hits and Hill had his 1,300th career hit with a run-scoring single in the third inning.

The Diamondbacks just couldn’t come up with the big hits when they needed them, stranding 11 runners while going 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.

“It was a game we should have done better, a more productive job of taking care of our opportunities,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said.

The Royals turned the series opener into a laugher, scoring 10 runs on three swings. Nori Aoki hit a grand slam, Butler had a three-run homer among his four hits, and Salvador Perez added a three-run shot in the 12-2 rout.

Kansas City had another long ball early against Collmenter, this one a two-run shot by Moustakas in the second inning, his team-leading 14th of the season. The Royals tacked on another run in the fourth, going up 3-2 on Moustakas’ run-scoring single.

Collmenter was good against everyone except Moustakas, though, allowing one other hit while striking out six in six innings.

“That is the difference: him (Ventura) pitching and getting out of jams and me pitching myself into a jam and not getting out of it,” Collmenter said.

Ventura had at least seven strikeouts in his previous two starts, including a win over Minnesota after allowing a run in seven innings his last outing.

The rookie right-hander kept piling up the Ks against the Diamondbacks, notching eight while working around baserunners nicely. He gave up run-scoring singles to Hill and David Peralta in the third inning, but little else despite struggling with his command on off-speed pitches.

Ventura allowed eight hits.

— Associated Press —

Cardinals get edged by Boston in Kelly’s return

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CardsST. LOUIS (AP) — Joe Kelly kept it together, just as Shelby Miller did in the opposite dugout.

The matchup of former teammates who were each other’s best man at their weddings was a high quality draw. Each allowed a run in seven innings.

“There was some emotion there,” Kelly said after the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Wednesday night. “After the first pitch, I’m just pitching again. It’s like you’re in the playoffs.”

Miller’s postgame reaction was similar.

“I thought it would maybe a little bit more odd than it really was,” Miller said. “When he’s in the box, you’re pitching to him. When we’re out there, we’re trying to win the game. That’s it.”

Xander Bogaerts drove in both runs, including a go-ahead sacrifice fly with the bases loaded off closer Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth inning. Three of Rosenthal’s six losses have come when he’s entered a game tied in the ninth.

“I thought he wanted to get ahead of me with a fastball so he could use his off-speed pitches,” Bogaerts said. “So I just went in there and keyed on the fastball.”

Junichi Tazawa (2-3) worked a perfect eighth and Koji Uehara worked around two hits in the ninth for his 23rd save in 25 chances. Boston won for just the third time in 14 games and snapped St. Louis’ three-game win streak.

Rosenthal (1-6) was working in his fourth consecutive game, in five days.

“I felt good, I felt like I was making some good pitches,” Rosenthal said. “I felt good the whole inning. There was no question I was ready to go.”

Kelly worked seven innings only twice in 22 starts for St. Louis the last two seasons and Miller got that deep for just the eighth time in 54 career starts.

Kelly got a nice ovation while walking to the bullpen to begin warmups, with hundreds of fans standing. There were more cheers when he stepped onto the mound for the first time, and before his first at-bat leading off the third.

The crowd cast yet another vote against the trade that brought starter John Lackey but came as a shock in the clubhouse. They cheered Kelly’s infield hit after the Red Sox successful challenged an out call by first base umpire Gary Cederstrom.

The Red Sox loaded the bases with none out in the ninth against Rosenthal, a single by Yoenis Cespedes, double by Mike Napoli and intentional walk to pinch hitter David Ortiz. Bogaerts lined out to center for a sacrifice fly and the lead.

The first pitch was delayed 1 hour, 3 minutes by rain.

— Associated Press —

Royals stay hot as they crush Arizona in series opener 12-2

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RoyalsPHOENIX (AP) — Billy Butler had a three-run homer among his four hits, Nori Aoki hit a grand slam and the Kansas City Royals gave Danny Duffy some rare run support by bashing the Arizona Diamondbacks 12-2 on Tuesday night.

Kansas City battered Wade Miley (7-8) from the start, scoring 10 runs off him by the fifth inning. Salvador Perez had the first big blow with a three-run homer in the third inning and Butler added another three-run shot during Kansas City’s eight-run fifth. Aoki capped the big inning with his first career grand slam.

The Royals had 10 of their 15 hits by the fifth inning and had a season-high in runs, allowing Duffy (6-10) to cruise to his first win since June 30.

Perez had three hits.

The Royals have mostly struggled when Duffy has pitched this season, producing 2.34 runs of support, lowest in the majors among pitchers with at least 100 innings. The left-hander had allowed a run or less in 11 of 16 starts, yet was 4-5 in those, including four straight losses.

That changed in a big way against the Diamondbacks and Miley.

Arizona’s left-hander had been sharp over his previous six starts, going 4-1 with a 2.45 ERA, including 6 2/3 scoreless innings his last outing.

The Royals hit Miley hard early, starting with Perez’s 13th homer in the third inning. Butler added his own three-run shot in the fifth and, after a pair of wild pitches by Miley, Aoki put the capper on the big inning with his first career grand slam on the first pitch by reliever Bo Schultz.

Miley allowed nine hits and walked three.

Duffy gave up a run-scoring single to Mark Trumbo in the first inning, but little else in five innings. He allowed three hits and struck out seven to end a five-start winless streak.

— Associated Press —

Jay helps St. Louis rally past Red Sox

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CardsST. LOUIS (AP) — Jon Jay hit an RBI single with two outs in the eighth inning to break a tie and lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals won their third in a row and fourth in the last five. Boston has lost three in a row.

Jay, who missed the previous five games with a wrist injury, blooped a hit to left off reliever Junichi Tazawa (1-3) to bring in former Red Sox A.J. Pierzynski with the winning run.

Reliever Pat Neshek (5-0) picked up the win by striking out the side in the eighth.

St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal recorded his NL-leading 35th save in 39 chances.

Boston beat St. Louis in six games in last year’s World Series.

St. Louis starter Lance Lynn gave up two runs on four hits over seven innings. Boston starter Rubby De La Rosa surrendered one run on six hits over six innings.

Kolten Wong tied the game 2-all with a two-out RBI single in the seventh off reliever Tommy Layne.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on a run-scoring single by Matt Adams. The hit drove in Matt Holliday, who doubled with one out.

Boston tied the contest in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Christian Vazquez. Daniel Nava reached safely on a two-base error by third baseman Matt Carpenter to begin the inning.

The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on Will Middlebrooks’ infield ground out. With the bases loaded and one away, he hit a two-hopper to the mound. Lynn bobbled the ball while looking to the plate and was forced to throw to first base.

Holliday was ejected in the seventh inning by home plate umpire Mark Ripperger for arguing a called third strike.

— Associated Press —

Royals win series at Oakland with 4-2 victory Sunday

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RoyalsOAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — James Shields pitched quite a gem for Kansas City. It certainly helped that Oakland abandoned its usual patient approach at the plate.

Shields pitched eight sharp innings for his first win in nearly a month, and the Royals beat the Athletics 4-2 on Sunday.

“This team was a free-hacking team today, which is not really their game,” Shields said. “They have a bunch of hitters over there that were being aggressive and I was able to execute my pitches early in the count.”

Shields retired his first 15 batters before Josh Reddick hit a leadoff homer in the sixth. Alberto Callaspo then had a one-out single before Sam Fuld lined into a double play.

The 32-year-old Shields (10-6) allowed two runs and four hits. He walked none for the fifth time this season.

“You watch the way that he’s pitching, it’s like, `OK boys, let’s just give him a couple runs and he’ll take it from there,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “A good indicator for him was he was managing his pitch count.”

Shields threw 102 pitches while helping the Royals to their ninth win in 12 games.

“As far as I’m concerned we can match up with anyone, any team, any starting rotation,” Shields said. “As long as we go toe to toe with those guys we’re going to be in every game.”

Reddick homered twice, getting to Shields again in the eighth.

The A’s have the best record in baseball at 67-43, but have sputtered offensively since trading cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to Boston on Thursday in a deal for ace Jon Lester. They lead the stacked AL West by one game over the Los Angeles Angels, who beat Tampa Bay 7-5 on Sunday.

Oakland was without injured leadoff hitter Coco Crisp, though it hardly mattered the way Shields was pitching.

Shields allowed only three balls out of the infield through the first five innings. One of them was a deep fly to center by Josh Donaldson in the first, the closest Oakland came to getting a man on base before Reddick’s home run.

“We just haven’t been our best offensively here,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Shields was using all his pitches, going to the change, to the cutter, and he had good command.”

Shields got his first win since he beat his former team, Tampa Bay, on July 7. Greg Holland pitched the ninth for his AL-leading 31st save.

Nori Aoki’s RBI single in the fifth gave Kansas City a 1-0 lead. Omar Infante followed with a two-run double and later scored on a single by Salvador Perez.

All the runs came against Scott Kazmir (12-4).

Reddick has four home runs since coming off the disabled list July 22. It’s the sixth multihomer game of his career and second this season.

— Associated Press —

Lackey wins debut as St. Louis sneaks by Brewers 3-2

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CardsST. LOUIS (AP) — For six innings, Matt Garza was in top form. Then he tweaked a left oblique and it all fell apart for the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers’ bullpen quickly surrendered a two-run lead that had once seemed so secure in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.

“It was bad enough where I had to take myself out of the game and I don’t do that,” Garza said. “There’s too much left in the season and I thought I’d make the smart play.”

Manager Ron Roenicke said Garza will be examined on Monday after feeling his side grab on one of his final pitches.

“He couldn’t keep going,” Roenicke said. “Great game, great fastball. He had a lot working.”

Garza said he had a similar injury last spring.

“I hadn’t even thought of it and it just happened, and you try and think of what you did,” Garza said. “It felt like a muscle grab, and it was one of those, and son of a gun.”

John Lackey won his St. Louis debut when the Cardinals rallied for three runs in the seventh inning, capped by a go-ahead from rookie Oscar Taveras.

The Cardinals took two of three from NL Central-leading Milwaukee and pulled within one game of the division lead.

“We played a good ballgame,” Roenicke said. “Got a couple of runs of Lackey and put up some zeroes and you feel pretty good about the game.

“It didn’t work out.”

Lackey (1-0) was the Cardinals’ big catch at the trade deadline that capitalized on Boston’s sell-off. The right-hander won the clinching Game 6 of the World Series against St. Louis last fall allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings and is 12-7 overall.

Trevor Rosenthal struck out Carlos Gomez with two on for his major league-leading 34th save in 38 chances.

Matt Holliday homered off Zach Duke with one out in the seventh. Recently acquired A.J. Pierzynski hit a tying single off Jeremy Jeffress (0-1) and Taveras singled up the middle.

Aramis Ramirez had an RBI single in the first for Milwaukee, his seventh hit of the series, and Mark Reynolds hit his 19th homer in the second.

Lyle Overbay pinch-hit for Garza in the seventh with two outs, a runner on first and the Brewers up 2-0. Garza had been coming up the dugout steps, but Roenicke said the pitcher hadn’t heard him say he was coming out.

“When you’re talking about obliques, you can’t go out there,” Roenicke said.

Overbay singled, raising his career average to .364 against Lackey, but Gomez popped up. Garza was out after just 71 pitches, and the Brewers’ bullpen quickly surrendered the lead.

Garza needed just 38 pitches and faced the minimum the first four innings. He went to a full count for the first time against Matt Adams, who doubled leading off the fifth.

— Associated Press —

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