KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Moments after James Shields struck out Rockies slugger Troy Tulowitzki, catcher Salvador Perez popped to his feet behind the plate and demanded the ball.

Shields raised his hands in utter confusion.

“He was like, `What’s going on? This is a good ball. I like this ball,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, “`and Salvy is making me throw the ball back in.”

It took Shields a moment — and some help from the scoreboard — to realize he had just reached 1,500 career strikeouts. It came in the sixth inning Tuesday night as he struck out the side, highlighting Kansas City’s 5-1 victory over hot-hitting Colorado.

“Normally when the umpire calls for the ball, the hitter is checking the ball or whatever, wants to take it out of play,” Shields said with a grin. “And I’m like, `I just struck the guy out!’ But once they pointed at the scoreboard I knew what was going on.”

The only run Shields (5-3) allowed came on an RBI single by Justin Morneau in the fourth inning. Shields wound up striking out eight without issuing a walk over seven sharp innings.

Perez helped him out with the bat, too, hitting a solo homer. Alcides Escobar drove in a pair of runs and Lorenzo Cain added a two-run shot to provide plenty of support.

Franklin Morales (3-3) gave up four runs for the Rockies. He allowed eight hits and four walks without a strikeout in five innings, needing 99 pitches just to get that far.

“I need to pitch better, man, because that’s my job,” he said. “I try to do the best I can, but when I’m behind in the count every time I got in trouble.”

The Royals jumped on Morales right from the start, a pair of double plays the only thing keeping the game from getting out of hand early. Still, Kansas City was able to coax a run across on a two-out single by Escobar to take the lead in the second inning.

Cain made it a 3-1 lead with his two-run shot in the fourth. It was the first home run by the Royals’ injury-prone outfielder since July 4 against Cleveland. The ball landed in the bullpen in left field to end a drought for Cain spanning 206 at-bats.

Perez added his solo shot in the fifth, the ball landing in just about the same spot.

That was more than enough support for Shields, who induced a double play to escape a jam in the second inning and then left two runners aboard in the fourth during a nice bounce-back performance at Kauffman Stadium.

In his previous home start, Shields allowed eight runs and 12 hits in a loss to Detroit.

“He did a good job of shutting this lineup down,” Rockies catcher Jordan Pacheco said.

When Shields recorded his milestone strikeout, the crowd at the K gave him a standing ovation. Shields appeared to be confused by the spontaneous applause, raising his hands on the mound as if to say, “What?” Eventually, he turned around on the rubber to see his strikeout mark on the giant video board in center field and started chuckling.

After stepping off the back of the mound, Shields tipped his cap and went back to work. He struck out Carlos Gonzalez to end the inning, then set down the Rockies in order in the seventh, finishing off his night by striking out Brandon Barnes for the second time.

“I knew about 10 days ago I was getting close,” Shields said. “To be honest with you, I didn’t even know how many strikeouts I had in the game. But that was a pretty special moment. Once I realized it, it’s kind of crazy to think — 1,500 strikeouts is quite a bit of strikeouts.”

— Associated Press —

SEATTLE (AP) — Johnny Giavotella took advantage of a rattled Seattle reliever to lift the Kansas City Royals.

His three-run homer in the seventh inning helped the Royals beat the Mariners 9-7 on Sunday.

The Royals’ seventh began with a double by Eric Hosmer. Reliever Danny Farquhar then struck out Billy Butler and appeared to strike out Danny Valencia on a 2-2 curveball. But home plate umpire Marcus Pattillo called it a ball, causing Farquhar to throw up his arms in disgust.

`’I’m pretty sure umpires don’t like that,” Valencia said.

Farquhar certainly was miffed and it seemed to have an impact on the rest of his inning. He would go on to walk Valencia and Alex Gordon, loading the bases. Lorenzo Cain tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center. Then Giavotella, promoted from Triple-A Omaha on Thursday, hit Farquhar’s first pitch for his first home run.

“Sometimes you want pitches and they are not called,” Farquhar said. “You can’t let that affect you. I want everything called a strike, so that is nothing different for me.”

Valencia added, `it’s part of the game. It’s going to happen. No one’s perfect out there. Fortunately, it was in my favor.”

Alcides Escobar had given the Royals the early lead with a second-inning grand slam off starter Roenis Elias.

But the Mariners rallied behind Dustin Ackley’s two homers and Kyle Seager’s two-run shot to take a 7-5 lead by the fifth.

As the Royals began to rally in the seventh, manager Ned Yost, with his bullpen rested and ready, turned to batting coach Pedro Grifol and said, “if tie or take the lead here, we’re pretty set up with (Aaron) Crow, (Wade) Davis and Holly (closer Greg Holland) ready. Then, boom, it happened. And, boom, it worked out.”

Crow and Davis held the Mariners to one hit each and Holland came on in the ninth to pick up his ninth save in 10 opportunities.

Louis Coleman (1-0), who worked a scoreless sixth, earned the victory.

The Mariners committed a season-high five errors.

“One thing I don’t do is make excuses for guys,” Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said, “so the onus is on the players in the locker room today. You got a question about errors, you go talk to them.”

McClendon would use Pattillo’s inconsistent strike zone as an excuse.

“I’m not going to argue for that type of stuff,” he said. “Listen, we didn’t play a very good game. You can analyze any way you want to. I told the team, `we didn’t play very good.’ We kicked ourselves in the ass today. It’s that simple.”

Yost, when asked about Farquhar’s borderline pitch, said, “we were upset when we didn’t get a third strike on (Mike) Zunino, too, which ended up costing us two runs. That’s part of the game.”

That pitch came in the Mariners three-run, second-inning rally. After Ackley hit his first home run to open the inning, Stephen Romero was hit by a pitch, bring up Zunino.

Starter Jeremy Guthrie believed he had Zunino struck out but it was called a ball. Zunino then singled to right and both runners scored on a double by Brad Miller, ending a 0-for-19 slide.

A pair of errors in the fourth allowed the Royals to build the lead by to 5-3. Giavotella walked and Escobar singled. Catcher Zunino tried to pick Giavotella off second but his throw scooted into center for an error, with the runners advancing. First baseman Justin Smoak then bobbled Nori Aoki’s bouncer, allowing Giavotella to score.

Seager, who missed the previous two games with flu-like symptoms, hit his sixth home run in the fourth followed by Ackley’s second, his first career multiple home-run game. Ackley also had a home run in the sixth inning Saturday, giving him three in three straight at-bats. He has four on the season.

“I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” Ackley said, “putting good swings on balls and not missing things.”

The Mariners added a run in the fifth on Corey Hart’s two-out single, scoring James Jones from second.

— Associated Press —