The Kansas City Royals never had seen Wade Miley pitch before Sunday and are happy they won’t see him again anytime soon.

Miley tossed seven sharp innings, John McDonald drove in the first run with a bunt single, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat Kansas City 2-0.

“That was an easy game to call for me because everything he threw was working,” Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero said. “Miley threw a great game. He worked fast and stayed ahead in the count. I don’t think those guys were too comfortable in the box.”

Miley (5-1) limited the Royals to five hits, throwing 99 pitches and lowering his ERA to 2.14. The rookie walked two and struck out three, sending Kansas City to its 17th loss in 22 home games this season.

“Miley was that good,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We’ve watched video on him. He was exactly what we thought he’d be. He’s got really good stuff, commands the ball down and kind of throws across his body, has a very quick arm and is tough to pick up. He’s got a real good changeup, a nice cutter. He was tough on us.”

David Hernandez and J.J. Putz each pitched an inning to finish off the shutout. Putz earned his ninth save in 11 opportunities.

Jeff Francoeur had four of Kansas City’s seven hits to match his career high. It was Francoeur’s 10th four-hit game and first since Aug. 23, 2011, in Toronto.

“Miley’s good,” Francoeur said. “He’s really good. He’s good as advertised. He pounds the strike zone, throws three good pitches. You can see why he made their starting rotation lately — 5-1 is pretty darn good.”

Paul Goldschmidt led off the Diamondbacks fifth with a double, stopped at third on Aaron Hill’s single and scored on McDonald’s bunt single that first baseman Eric Hosmer failed to field cleanly.

Right-hander Nate Adcock (0-2), just recalled from Triple-A Omaha and making his first start of the season, held Arizona to five hits and one run over five innings.

The Royals got four runners to third base — Francoeur in the second and fifth, and Billy Butler in the fourth and eighth — but failed to get them home. They went 0 for 5 with runners at third and 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

“Miley’s makeup is what makes him good,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “He believes in himself, he believes in his catcher and he believes the scouting reports.”

Francoeur tripled off the right-field wall with two outs in the sixth for Kansas City’s only extra-base hit. Alex Gordon grounded out to end the inning.

“Everything I threw Francoeur hit,” Miley said “When I threw him a fastball early in the count, he hit it. I tried to go soft on him early and then come back with the heater and he hit it. He was locked in on everything I threw.”

The Royals’ best chance to score came in the fourth. Butler led off with a walk and advanced to second on Francoeur’s single before Gordon moved up both runners with a groundout. Miley, however, pitched out of danger by retiring Hosmer on an infield popup and Brayan Pena on a grounder.

“That’s a big win for us,” Miley said. “We win the series and the win puts us over .500 on the road trip. I was happy to keep us in the game.”

The Diamondbacks manufactured a run without a hit in the eighth. Gerardo Parra led off with a walk and Ryan Roberts sacrificed. Greg Holland’s wild pitch allowed Parra to reach third and Justin Upton hit a sacrifice fly to right.

The Royals were shut out for the fourth time. They are 2-8 when the opponent starts a left-hander.

— Associated Press —

The Diamondbacks are finally getting things to fall in their favor.

Chris Young came off the disabled list Friday night and provided a pair of RBIs. Joe Saunders kept Arizona in the game after a shaky start, and Miguel Montero drove in three runs against the Kansas City Royals, including the deciding two in the eighth inning for a 6-4 win.

“Bringing CY back today was certainly uplifting to the team,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “It was a big win for us, two in a row.”

Modest for a winning streak, but something that hasn’t happened since April 29-May 1.

The Royals had pulled into a tie in the seventh before Kelvin Herrera (0-1) gave up back-to-back singles to Willie Bloomquist and Justin Upton to start the eighth. Montero’s second double of the game off reliever Tim Collins gave the Diamondbacks the lead.

Relievers Brad Ziegler (3-1) and Craig Breslow got the game to J.J. Putz, who worked around a two-out walk to Billy Butler in the ninth for his eighth save of the season.

Young had been out since hurting his right shoulder running into a wall during a game against Pittsburgh on April 17. Gibson put him at designated hitter Friday night, allowing him to get some at-bats without having to test his shoulder in the outfield.

It was the first time he’d played DH in 776 career games. The option isn’t available unless the Diamondbacks are playing in an American League ballpark.

“It’s a way different lineup with him in it,” said Saunders, who allowed three runs in the first three innings before shutting down Kansas City over the next three. “It gives us more balance, more power. It gives us more opportunities to do different things.”

Humberto Quintero drove in a pair of runs and Butler went deep for Kansas City, which has lost three straight by a combined five runs after leading in each of them.

The Royals dropped to 4-16 at home this season.

“We’ve got to play better,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We can come up with all the excuses, all the reasons why, but the bottom line is we just need to play better, and put our game together at little better. We need to pitcher better and hit better at home.

“We’ve been really good on the road,” he said. “We need to find a way to do it at home.”

Arizona struck early on Montero’s run-scoring double in the first, but that’s all they could manage until the sixth. Luis Mendoza retired the next 12 batters he faced for Kansas City.

The Royals jumped on Saunders in the second inning with back-to-back singles by Johnny Giavotella and Mike Moustakas. Mitch Maier grounded back to Saunders, but his throw to second base was high, preventing Arizona from turning a double play and putting runners on the corners.

Quintero followed with a two-run double, his third straight two-RBI game.

Butler pushed the Royals’ lead to 3-1 with his homer to center leading off the third. It was his seventh of the year, a total he didn’t reach last season until July 22.

Arizona finally solved Mendoza in the sixth inning.

Gerardo Parra, Bloomquist and Upton all singled in the span of four pitches, bringing the Diamondbacks within 3-2. Montero struck out to bring up Young, who picked up the hot hitting he was doing before getting hurt by lacing a two-run double into the left-field corner.

Kansas City answered in the bottom half of the inning.

Irving Falu doubled to right and advanced to third on Butler’s groundout. Gibson drew in the infield to protect the plate, but the move backfired when Alex Gordon slapped a tying single past first baseman Paul Goldschmidt — a ground ball that he normally could have fielded.

Montero made that a moot point with his go-ahead double in the eighth.

“He understands what he needs to do,” Gibson said. “He got ahead in the count and waited for a pitch to hit and came through with a big one.”

— Associated Press —

On the road against the American League’s best offense isn’t the most ideal way to make your season debut. Vin Mazzaro made the most of it.

Mazzaro kept Texas’ potent lineup in check for five innings, and Billy Butler and Brayan Pena each drove in a pair of runs to lead the Kansas City Royals to their second straight win over the Rangers, 7-4 on Tuesday night.

The Royals, losers of 12 straight last month, have now won five of six games and pulled off a rare two-game sweep of the Rangers — Kansas City’s first since 1977.

“To come in here and win two games is big for us,” said Royals manager Ned Yost. “Our pitching has been pretty good. That shows you how good.”

Mazzaro, making the start in place of left-hander Danny Duffy, who is out for the season with a torn elbow ligament, gave up three runs on seven hits. He had two strikeouts.

“It’s a tough situation,” Mazzaro said of the injury to Duffy. “But any situation you get thrown in you have to give it your best. You never know when you’ll get another one. I just went out there and stayed focused on every pitch.”

Mazzaro and the Royals got a little help from two throwing errors by Rangers starter Colby Lewis (3-3), which led to five unearned runs in the first two innings.

Mike Moustakas, who reached base for a 22nd consecutive game, homed in the third for Kansas City.

Major league home run leader Josh Hamilton, who is only the fourth player in 40 years to lead the majors’ triple crown categories 35 games into a season, according to information provided by the Rangers from the Elias Sports Bureau, extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single and added a sacrifice fly.

Reliever Tim Collins struck out five of the six batters he faced in the sixth and seventh innings for the Royals, who handed Lewis his third loss in May.

“Collins was dynamite tonight,” said manager Ned Yost. “The bullpen has been doing it all year long.”

Lewis’ throwing error on a comebacker to the mound by Eric Hosmer put runners on second and third with no outs in the first. Jarrod Dyson scored on Butler’s fielder’s choice and Lewis retired Alex Gordon on a flyout to left field before Jeff Francoeur doubled and Moustakas was hit by a pitch. Pena followed with a two-run single to put the Royals up 3-0.

Moustakas came around to score on Chris Getz’s run-scoring base hit.

Kansas City sent nine hitters to the plate in the inning.

“The only thing we can look back at is that Colby should have made that play,” said Texas manager Ron Washington. “If he makes that play, it’s a zero on the scoreboard.

“They swung the bat, but those at-bats wouldn’t have happened if we execute some plays.”

Dyson led off the second with a single and advanced to second when Lewis bounced a pickoff attempt short and wide of the bag. Butler hit a double to score Dyson and put Kansas City ahead 5-0.

The run support was plenty for Mazzaro and the bullpen, which held the majors’ top-scoring team to one run in four innings. Mazzaro had made six starts with Triple-A Omaha this season, going 1-0 with a 4.37 ERA. Before his promotion May 8, Mazzaro had allowed just two runs on eight hits in 13 innings in his last two starts.

David Murphy and Mitch Moreland had RBIs for the Rangers, and Brandon Snyder homered in the ninth.

Dyson reached base three times for Kansas City, including a double to lead off the game.

— Associated Press —

Kansas City starter Bruce Chen was changing speeds, moving pitches inside and outside.

Chen kept Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers off balance while pitching into the seventh inning for the Royals to win his second start in a row, 3-1 over the AL West leaders Monday night.

“Against that lineup, he was unbelievable,” Royals catcher Brayan Pena said. “He kept the ball down, mixed pretty good trying to make sure that the big boys didn’t hurt us. … He did a great job with the hottest hitter on the planet.”

The Rangers were the top hitting team in the majors, and had 19 hits the previous night. Hamilton, named earlier Monday the AL player of the week for his nine homers and 18 RBIs last week, extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single and Nelson Cruz hit a massive homer.

But Hamilton, the slugger who is hitting .400 and leads the majors with 18 homers and 44 RBIs, didn’t hurt the Royals. He even lost the grip of two bats that flew into the stands while swinging against Chen (2-4).

“I think Bruce Chen faced Josh Hamilton about as good as you can face him. Two souvenirs in the stands,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said.

“That was a great win right there. Bruce was just superb,” he said. “He made one mistake, and the pitch wasn’t that bad a pitch, but it was a 2-0 cutter right into Cruz’s hot zone. Besides that, he was spectacular.”

Scott Feldman (0-1) allowed two unearned runs over 4 2/3 innings in his second spot start this season.

“He certainly gave us a lot more than we expected,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “Unfortunately, the guy who made the mistake is one who doesn’t make many.”

Feldman gave up three hits, the last a two-run single by No. 9 hitter Alcides Escobar right after third baseman Adrian Beltre’s two-out throwing error in the fifth.

Jeff Francoeur led off the fifth with a single before Chris Getz, robbed of a hit two innings earlier when Beltre made a backhanded grab of a scorching liner, hit a two-out hopper to third. Beltre had plenty of time, but threw the ball wide of first base.

“I just pulled it,” Beltre explained about his second error of the season.

Getz then stole second base before Escobar’s liner up the middle made it 2-1. Center fielder Craig Gentry made a diving play on the ball, but trapped it on one hop.

Chen has won his last two starts since a four-game losing streak. The left-hander struck out seven, walked two and allowed only five hits over 6 2/3 innings.

“I just tried to make sure I threw all my pitches from all different angles so they’d be kind of off balance,” Chen said. “The first couple of innings I tried to establish what I was going to do.”

Jonathan Broxton worked the ninth for his eighth save in nine chances for the Royals, who have won 11 of 17 since their 12-game losing streak in April.

Francoeur, part of the Rangers’ first World Series team in 2010, had a leadoff walk in the seventh and scored when Pena grounded into a double play.

Hamilton’s incredible streak had overshadowed Cruz, who also had 14 hits his previous seven games. But Cruz only had one homer in that span, a grand slam in a 13-6 victory over the Angels on Sunday night that ended his 23-game homerless drought.

On Monday, Cruz pulled a ball an estimated 416 feet into the second deck of seats in left field, only the 17th homer hit there in the 18-year-old Rangers Ballpark.

But Cruz struck out his other three at-bats. The right fielder is the only Rangers player to start all 36 games this season since second baseman Ian Kinsler got his first night off.

Rookie left-hander Robbie Ross relieved Feldman and got Jarrod Dyson on an inning-ending called third strike. Ross struck out two in his 2 1/3 innings.

Texas needed a spot starter after a rainout last week in Baltimore pushed Colby Lewis back to Thursday. Lewis (3-2) will pitch on his regular rest Tuesday night against the Royals.

— Associated Press —