SEATTLE (AP) — Hisashi Iwakuma scattered four hits over eight innings and Corey Hart hit an RBI single to lift the Seattle Mariners over the Kansas City Royals 1-0 on Thursday night.

Seattle won for the 11th time in 14 games since losing eight straight from April 15-22.

Iwakuma (2-0) was making his second start after beginning the season on the disabled list with a strained tendon on the middle finger of his pitching hand. The All-Star right-hander struck out seven and walked none.

Fernando Rodney worked around a pair of walks in the ninth to earn his 10th save in 11 chances. The Mariners have shut out the Royals for 27 straight innings dating to September 2013.

Danny Duffy (1-3) gave up one run and two hits in six-plus innings. He has allowed two hits and a run in each of his first two starts this season after pitching out of the bullpen to begin the year.

Iwakuma has thrown 48 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings against AL Central teams, the second-longest streak by any pitcher against one division dating to 1974. Orel Hershiser tossed 55 straight scoreless innings against NL West opponents in 1988.

The Mariners pushed across the lone run in the third. Mike Zunino led off with a double for Seattle’s first hit and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. After a strikeout, Duffy intentionally walked Robinson Cano. Hart followed with a single up the middle.

Seattle batters have driven in runs three out of the six times opposing teams have intentionally walked Cano this season.

Kansas City managed just four singles and advanced a runner to second base only once during the first eight innings. The Royals had their best opportunity to score in the ninth when Rodney walked a pair, but the closer struck out Billy Butler and induced a game-ending groundout.

— Associated Press —

SAN DIEGO (AP) — James Shields scattered seven hits over seven innings, Eric Hosmer drove in a season-high four runs and the Kansas City Royals beat the San Diego Padres 8-0 Wednesday.

The Royals scored three times in the first and that was plenty for Shields (4-3). He struck out four, walked two and threw 118 pitches.

Shields won his fourth straight road start of the season. Since 2013, he is 14-4 in 24 road starts with a 2.00 ERA.

Two relievers finished for the Royals. The Padres were shut out for a major league-high sixth time this season. San Diego has lost six of eight overall.

Andrew Cashner (2-5) took the loss as he was again derailed by an anemic offense and shoddy defense.

Cashner, who lasted a season-low four innings, had trouble from the start. He threw 43 pitches in the first, hurt by a pair of errors from shortstop Everth Cabrera that led to two unearned runs.

Alcides Escobar reached when Cabrera misplayed his ground ball after Nori Aoki opened with a single. Hosmer hit a two-run single, Alex Gordon reached base two batters later when Cabrera mishandled his grounder and Danny Valencia followed with a broken-bat, RBI single.

Cashner ended the inning by getting Shields to ground out with the bases in a nine-pitch at-bat.

The Padres had a chance to cut into their deficit in the second when they got three hits. But Cameron Maybin was too aggressive rounding second base on an infield single, and Escobar slid in behind from shortstop, took Hosmer’s throw from first base and made the tag.

Padres manager Bud Black requested a review, but the call stood. It marked the first time in five appeals this season that Black had lost.

The Royals’ lead grew to 4-0 in the third when Gordon doubled and later scored on Mike Moustakas’ sacrifice fly.

The Padres tied a season high with three errors, and had a passed ball and wild pitch in allowing four unearned runs.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — It was little surprise that Billy Butler broke up Justin Verlander’s no-hit bid Sunday.

The Detroit ace was cruising until Butler’s two-out single in the sixth inning of Tigers’ 9-4 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Butler singled cleanly to right on a 1-2 pitch, leaving him with a .432 career average in 74 at-bats against Verlander.

“I didn’t make a good pitch,” Verlander said. “It was a fastball. I didn’t throw a good one.”

Kansas City’s only runners before the single were Nori Aoki, who walked three times, and Alex Gordon, who walked once.

“You’re never not aware of a no-hitter,” Butler said.

Verlander won his fourth straight decision and the Tigers extended their winning streak to a season-high five games. He pitched no-hitters against Milwaukee in June 2007 and versus Toronto in May 2011.

“It always enters early on,” he said. “But at the same time, there’s a long way to go. It’s going to be on your mind a little bit, but you can’t let it be there too much. Because we’ve seen it a 100 times where a guy gives up a base hit in a tight ball game and they’ve got a no-hitter going and give it from there.”

Verlander (4-1) allowed three runs, four hits and four walks in seven innings with seven strikeouts. Jarrod Dyson hit a two-run triple in the seventh and scored on a sacrifice fly by Aoki.

“There are ups and downs. Hopefully we’ll get over it soon,” Dyson said. “They swung the bats, and we didn’t. We’ve just got to bring our ‘A’ game. It wasn’t there all series.”

Backed with a 7-0 lead, Verlander improved to 17-5 against the Royals, the best winning percentage (.773) among active pitchers with 10 decisions or more.

“We caught a team on fire,” Butler said.

Nick Castellanos and Alex Avila homered for the Tigers, who had 16 hits, and Torii Hunter had three hits and three RBIs, extending his hitting streak to 11 games.

Rajai Davis and Andrew Romine also had three hits each. Davis raised his average to .337, scored three runs and stole two bases, raising his total to 11. Romine’s three hits matched his career high.

Detroit is 5-0 against the Royals this year and has won seven of eight overall. Kansas City, outscored 26-8 in the series, is 0-4 this month after going 8-20 last May.

“I don’t think it matters who is in first on May fourth,” Butler said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Jason Vargas (2-1) gave up seven runs and 11 hits in five innings — he’s allowed 12 runs and 21 hits over 11 1/3 innings in his last two starts.

“We were patient and made adjustments,” Hunter said. “Vargas is a guy that keeps you off balance with his good changeup and his fastball is kind of sneaky. Usually he’s a thorn in our side. We just made some adjustments as a team and we prevailed.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Tigers’ Drew Smyly went from the bullpen to tossing seven shutout innings as a starter. Nick Castellanos is tied with Miguel Cabrera for the team lead in RBIs.

Not exactly what Detroit manager Brad Ausmus expected at the start of the season.

Both of those pleasant surprises factored into a 9-2 rout of the Royals on Saturday night. Smyly picked up where fellow starter Rick Porcello left off by keeping Kansas City off the scoreboard, and Castellanos drove in three runs before Detroit tacked on the final sixth in the ninth inning.

So far, Castellanos has driven in 17 runs — more than Victor Martinez, Torii Hunter, Ian Kinsler and everybody else on the Tigers that doesn’t have an MVP award to his credit.

“I don’t know that would have been my guess,” Ausmus said, “but this is fine. I’m glad.”

Porcello and the Tigers bullpen retired the final 18 hitters in an 8-2 victory the previous night, and Smyly (2-1) retired the first four he faced. After a issuing a walk to Alex Gordon, the former reliever then retired the next six in a dominant performance.

Smyly wound up allowing two hits and two walks before giving way to Joba Chamberlain, who threw a perfect eighth. Phil Coke allowed two runs in the ninth to lose the shutout.

The win was the Tigers’ fifth straight over Kansas City.

“Smyly was outstanding,” Ausmus said. “I think he had nine days since his last start. Pitch count wasn’t a factor. I just decided he had done his job.”

Duffy moved from the bullpen back to the rotation in place of Bruce Chen, who went on the disabled list this week with a bulging disc in his back. Duffy was on a pitch count and wound up lasting just four innings, allowing two hits and walking four while throwing 75 pitches.

“Any time we lose, I’m not going to be happy with an outing,” he said. “But I felt like I kept my team in the game. I pounded the strike zone much as I could.”

Kansas City played without catcher Salvador Perez, who was given the night off after fouling a pitch off his shin in the series opener. Royals manager Ned Yost said he expects the All-Star to be back in the lineup Sunday — though they sure could have used his bat in this one.

The only hits the Royals could muster off Smyly came on Eric Hosmer’s double in the fourth and a single in the fifth by Danny Valencia, who was thrown out trying to reach second.

“These things turn around quick. You look at Detroit’s club and they are swinging the bats really good, all of them. They’re hot right now,” Yost said. “They’ve got good pitching, which attributes to some of it. But we think we’re a better offensive club than we’ve shown so far.”

Meanwhile, the Tigers took advantage of Duffy’s erratic ways.

The left-hander walked the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and Castellanos followed with a liner to left that Alex Gordon caught on the run. But rather than throw home immediately, the Gold Glove winner hesitated, and that gave Miguel Cabrera time to score.

In the sixth, reliever Louis Coleman allowed a double to Cabrera and intentionally walked Victor Martinez, who has been hot all series. Herrera came in and Castellanos ripped a double to right, driving in both runs while ending a 0-for-15 slump.

That was plenty of support for Smyly, who made 63 appearances out of the bullpen last season and two this season, but who may be firmly establishing himself as the fifth starter.

The victory was Smyly’s first as a starter since beating the Royals on July 6, 2012.

“He was throwing strikes,” Ausmus said. “He seemed to be using all his pitches, which is important as a starter. He pitched really well.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rick Porcello is already in his sixth full season in the big leagues, which makes it all the easier to forget that the Tigers right-hander is still just 25 years old.

“I do think he’s still learning himself a little bit,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said after an 8-2 win over the Kansas City Royals, a game that Porcello dominated for seven innings.

“Rick has really matured dramatically over his time here,” Ausmus said. “You have to remember the guy is pretty young. You think he’s older because he’s been in the starting rotation.”

Porcello (4-1) gave up a sacrifice fly to Eric Hosmer, a solo homer to Billy Butler and little else Friday night. He wound up allowing four hits while striking out six without a walk.

“Throwing first-pitch strikes I think was the biggest key tonight,” he said. “Being ahead 0-1 instead of 1-0 is huge. You can go a lot of different ways when you do that.”

Victor Martinez had a pair of doubles and drove in two runs, and J.D. Martinez and Alex Avila also drove in two runs apiece as the Tigers won their fourth straight against the Royals.

Meanwhile, Shields (3-3) allowed eight runs — seven of them earned — on 12 hits, a walk and a hit batter in 6 1/3 innings. It was the worst outing for the Royals ace since last September, when Shields allowed 10 runs in another lousy start against the Tigers.

“I threw some good pitches. That’s a good hitting ball club over there,” he said. “I wasn’t locating my pitches. I was getting behind in the count. I didn’t do my job out there, bottom line. I’ve got to do a better job of getting outs. It’s just one of those games.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Royals also lost All-Star catcher Salvador Perez when he fouled a pitch off his shin in the seventh inning. He was listed as day to day with a bruise.

Shields first got into trouble in the second, when he loaded the bases but escaped the jam unscathed. But things only got worse in the third, when a single by Torii Hunter and back-to-back doubles by Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.

They never gave it back the rest of the game.

J.D. Martinez kept the onslaught going when he led off the fourth with a double, and Avila followed by hitting the first pitch of his at-bat for his first homer of the season. Detroit added another run later in the inning when Andrew Romine reached third on an error by the Royals’ Mike Moustakas, and then scored on a double-play groundout.

Butler provided the only bright spot the rest of the way for Kansas City, guiding a line drive over the fence in left field for his first homer of the season — and the first by any hitter batting in the cleanup spot in the Royals lineup.

“I knew I hit it good. I didn’t know if it was high enough to get out,” Butler said. “I knew I hit it hard, but didn’t hit it very high. I couldn’t see if it was fair or foul. I knew it was really close, too.”

Shields was finally pulled in the seventh, allowing another run and leaving the bases loaded while recording one out. Reliever Kelvin Herrera gave up a double to J.D. Martinez that brought in two more runs and gave the Tigers an 8-2 lead.

That was plenty of support for Porcello, who had been miserable in the month of April until this season, when he went 3-1 with a 3.96 ERA. He kept that momentum going against Kansas City, a team he oddly never faced last season, retiring his final 12 batters.

“He’s been throwing the ball great all season long,” Victor Martinez said. “He’s showing he’s young but he knows what he’s doing out there. He’s giving us a great chance to win ballgames.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mark Buehrle allowed two walks and both runners ended up scoring.

So despite pitching into the seventh inning Thursday night, and helping the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals that staved off a series sweep, the veteran left-hander still had something to ruminate over in the visiting clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium.

“I’d rather give up 10 hits and no walks. I hate it. Make them earn it,” Buehrle said. “But you know, our offense bounced back and the defense played well behind me.”

Apparently, nobody is tougher on Buehrle than Buehrle.

Juan Francisco and Colby Rasmus each homered and drove in two runs, and Anthony Gose also had a pair of RBIs after getting recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to start in place of injured outfielder Melky Cabrera, helping Toronto avoid its first three-game sweep by the Royals since 1993.

Buehrle (5-1) worked through plenty of trouble in 6 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits and those two walks. Aaron Loup pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings for his third career save.

“(Buehrle) pitches to win,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “He’s going to do whatever it takes, and he’s on a nice little roll. He’s having a good year for us.”

The Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie (2-2) left trailing 4-3 after six innings, but his bullpen was unable to keep it close. Billy Butler drove in a pair of runs, but that was just about it for Kansas City, which had its three-game winning streak come to an end.

“He mixes speeds. He locates. He frustrates you,” Butler said of Buehrle, no stranger to Kansas City having pitched for the AL Central rival White Sox. “He feeds off your over aggressiveness.”

The teams traded blows most of the way.

Toronto struck first when Chris Getz singled in the first inning and then swiped bases all the way to third, where Edwin Encarnacion drove him in with a fielder’s choice.

Kansas City answered in the second when Justin Maxwell walked and Alcides Escobar singled to right. Jose Bautista flubbed the pickup, allowing Maxwell to score easily.

The Royals pulled ahead in the third on Butler’s single, though they squandered another scoring opportunity when Eric Hosmer was thrown out at home for the second straight night.

The Blue Jays regained the lead the next half inning when Francisco, who had two homers in three at-bats off Guthrie last season, hit a two-run shot over the bullpen in right field. But the Royals answered again on Butler’s two-out double to left in the bottom of the fifth.

“I’m seeing the ball good now,” Butler said. “I knew it was going to come.”

The Royals kept shifting dramatically to deal with the Blue Jays’ left-handed power hitters, but it didn’t matter when Rasmus came to bat in the sixth. He powered a 1-2 pitch right over the defense for a two-out homer that gave Toronto a 4-3 lead.

“I was trying to go down and in and didn’t get it there,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie finished off the inning, but was lifted after allowing four runs on eight hits and two walks in just six innings. His bumpy night stood in stark contrast to his last four outings against the Blue Jays, when he went 1-0 with a 1.44 ERA.

The Blue Jays tacked on some insurance in the eighth. Rasmus drew a bases-loaded walk off Michael Mariot, and then Gose hit a two-run double off Louis Coleman that broke the game open.

“It was definitely a big win,” Loup said. “Close game like it was, back and forth, back and forth. Hopefully it gets us on a roll, gets us some wins.”

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Alcides Escobar is a maestro with his glove, making the kinds difficult of plays at shortstop that has helped to make the Kansas City Royals one of the best defensive teams in baseball.

On Wednesday night, Escobar showed he can swing the bat a bit, too. His two-run double in the seventh inning proved to be the difference in a tense 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“He’s been very consistent,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s always been an important part of our club because of his defense. He saves runs in the field. But when you add offense to that, he becomes a very special player.”

Eric Hosmer drove in the other two runs for the Royals, whose bullpen blew a 2-0 lead for young starter Yordano Ventura before holding on to beat Toronto with a late rally for the second straight night. Kansas City won the series opener 10-7 behind a six-run eighth inning.

Kelvin Herrera (1-1) stranded runners on second and third in the seventh, and Wade Davis struck out Jose Reyes to leave the bases loaded in the eighth. Greg Holland worked around a double in the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries.

“You play 162 games. You’re going to see a lot of things happen,” Holland said. “The mark of a good bullpen is when you have guys pick each other up when they get in jams.”

Drew Hutchison (1-2) allowed all four runs on five hits in seven innings for Toronto.

The 23-year-old right-hander, who missed last season after Tommy John surgery, kept the Royals mostly off balance until Escobar guided his double down the left-field line with two outs in the seventh. Jimmy Paredes and Salvy Perez scored easily to give Kansas City the lead.

“I got ahead of him. I went right at him. I thought I made a good pitch,” Hutchison said. “That’s a situation where I expect myself to thrive and get the job done, but I didn’t.”

The Royals improved to 14-0 when scoring at least four runs — they remain 0-12 falling short of that mark. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in their last seven games.

Toronto also lost outfielder Melky Cabrera in the sixth inning when he was hit in the left shin by a pitch from Danny Duffy. Cabrera needed to be helped off the field, though X-rays taken at the ballpark came back negative and a team spokesman said he was day to day.

The Royals manufactured a 1-0 lead through driving rain in the first inning with a double by Nori Aoki, a sacrifice bunt and Hosmer’s sacrifice fly. They tacked on another run in the fourth when Hosmer followed a double by Omar Infante with one of his own.

As long as Ventura was pitching, it seemed that would be enough.

The Blue Jays struggled to catch up to the 22-year-old’s triple-digit fastball, managing just two hits over five innings. But they were more successful at avoiding stuff off the plate, driving up his pitch count and forcing him from the game after five innings and 92 pitches.

“It was cold out there,” Ventura said through a translator, fellow starter Jeremy Guthrie. “Naturally, it was a little more difficult to command.”

That’s when Royals manager Ned Yost called on Duffy, who hit Cabrera in the left shin with his first pitch. Cabrera dropped to the grass in foul territory and stayed there several minutes, eventually getting helped through the dugout and to the clubhouse by the Blue Jays’ trainers.

Duffy proceeded to walk Jose Bautista on five pitches and was yanked for Aaron Crow, who gave up singles to Edwin Encarnacion and Juan Francisco that tied the game 2-all. Crow finally escaped the inning, and the Royals bullpen held Toronto down the rest of the way.

“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day I need to do a better job to give us a chance to win after we came back and scored two runs,” Hutchison said. “I was in complete control going into the seventh. It comes down to that it’s on me and I need to get the job done.”

— Associated Press —