The Kansas City Royals lost their starting pitcher in the first inning and were in the middle of a listless day at the plate before Johnny Giavotella turned it all around with one big swing.

Giavotella hit a two-run double off Matt Thornton in the seventh inning and Jeff Francoeur belted his first homer of the season, leading the Royals to a 9-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.

“We were dead and (Giavotella) put up a huge at-bat against a guy who’s not easy to hit and throws 97,” Francoeur said. “So I thought that kind of livened us up and then we were able to relax and have some good swings.”

Alcides Escobar went 3 for 3 with two walks for Kansas City, which broke it open with six runs in the ninth inning. Francoeur also had an RBI single and made a nice play in right field.

Kansas City won for the fourth time in five games despite losing Danny Duffy to elbow tightness after just three batters. The left-hander recorded two outs before catcher Humberto Quintero saw him shake out his arm at the end of a throw, prompting a mound visit from manager Ned Yost and a trainer.

“As soon as he said ‘It’s in my elbow,’ I said ‘That’s it,'” Yost said. “We need to get that checked, see what’s going on there, and go from there.”

Duffy was headed back to Kansas City on Sunday night and is scheduled for an MRI exam on Monday. He also experienced tightness in his elbow last month.

“You can’t worry about things like this until you know what it is,” Duffy said. “My main concern was letting down my team. These guys are my brothers in here. They did a great job of picking me up.”

Luis Mendoza came in and pitched 5 2/3 innings, keeping the Royals in the game while they struggled to score against Philip Humber. Mendoza (2-2) allowed one run and seven hits, struck out four and walked two.

“Just tried to get that confidence,” he said. “I mean the last three appearances, I feel good and more confident, too.”

Humber broke out of his post-perfect game slump, pitching four-hit ball into the seventh inning, but the White Sox still lost for the fourth time in their last five home games.

Humber walk Escobar with one out in the seventh, but got Quintero to foul out before he was replaced by left-hander Matt Thornton (1-3) with the White Sox clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Jarrod Dyson then walked, and both runners moved up on a wild pitch. Giavotella followed with a double down the right-field line, giving the Royals the lead with his first hit of the season. He is 1 for 10 in four games since he was recalled from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday.

“I was glad to be a spark,” Giavotella said. “We couldn’t score against Humber. He was keeping us at bay, so I’m glad I was able to get a big knock for us.”

Humber struck out seven and walked three in his best start since his gem at Seattle on April 21. The 29-year-old right-hander was 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in his previous three outings.

“Definitely a step in the right direction,” he said.

Francoeur hit a drive to left off Nate Jones in the eighth for his first homer since Sept. 23 at U.S. Cellular Field. He also made a nice sliding catch on Brent Morel’s drive to the warning track in the fourth before nearly doubling off Tyler Flowers with a strong throw to first.

The White Sox put runners on first and second with one out in the eighth but Kosuke Fukudome struck out and fellow pinch-hitter A.J. Pierzynski bounced out to end the inning.

— Associated Press —

Bruce Chen can relax a bit — he’s in the win column.

Chen, the Royals’ opening day starter, picked up his first victory of the season Wednesday night as Kansas City held off the Boston Red Sox 4-3.

Alcides Escobar drove in the go-ahead run as the Royals solved Jon Lester for the first time in a while. Jonathan Broxton worked around a leadoff single and walk in the ninth inning for his seventh save in eight opportunities.

The Royals were winless in Chen’s first six starts this year, although he had been pitching deep into games.

“You try not to think about it,” Chen said. “You try not to let it bother you, but at the end of the day you have no wins and it’s almost the middle of May.

“I know I’ve been pitching well. I didn’t worry. I didn’t try to do too much. I trust my stuff, my teammates. Today was a huge win. Even though it’s in the win column for me, but I feel like the whole team contributed.”

The Royals finished 4-3 on their homestand against Boston and the New York Yankees. The Red Sox have lost seven of eight.

Chen (1-4) gave up three runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings while striking out five and walking none.

“That’s the first time in a long time I felt like we were firing on all cylinders, facing a guy that’s been extremely tough on us,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

“Clutch hitting, clutch pitching. I thought Bruce threw a tremendous game. They had seven hits and five were off the end of the bat or jam shots that just found holes or hit the line. And to get four runs off Jon Lester was huge. It was good to finally beat him. He’s a guy who has handled us for a long time,” he said.

The Royals beat Lester (1-3) for the first time since Aug. 8, 2006. The left-hander came into the game with a 5-1 record and 1.30 ERA in seven career starts against Kansas City, including a no-hitter in 2008.

Escobar’s double in the fourth Irving Falu, who led off the inning with a double, to put the Royals ahead 4-3.

Lester’s pitch count rose early with a 38-pitch first inning, but 12 of those were after center fielder Marlon Byrd’s error led to three unearned runs.

Lester was pulled after 108 pitches and five innings, giving up four runs on six hits and a walk.

In the first inning, Byrd misjudged Johnny Giavotella’s two-out liner and the ball ricocheted off his glove as he jumped for it. The misplay allowed Billy Butler, who had walked, to score.

Brayan Pena then hit a two-run double to left-center that Cody Ross nearly caught. Ross had his glove on the ball, but it came loose and hit the wall. Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine debated Ross held onto the ball long enough — the umpires held a conference on the field, but did not change the ruling.

“It hit his glove, then popped out and bounced off the wall,” Valentine said. “It’s not a catch unless you get it out of the glove voluntarily.”

“The ball on Marlon really took off on him. It was tough on Jon — they scored three runs. Cody went a long way, caught it and popped out of his glove. He’s frustrated. He battled. He wanted to go out and pitch the sixth.”

Adrian Gonzalez hit a three-run double in the Boston third, driving in Byrd, Ryan Sweeney and Dustin Pedroia. Pedroia’s single extended his hitting streak to a season-high 10 games.

— Associated Press —

Robinson Cano picked a grand time to break the Yankees out of their offensive slump.

The second baseman went deep off Luke Hochevar with the bases loaded in the third inning on Sunday, and Nick Swisher followed with a solo shot two batters later, giving New York plenty of offense in a 10-4 rout of the Kansas City Royals.

Alex Rodriguez added a three-run shot in the eighth inning, helping the Yankees to a four-game split. The series began with a freak, season-ending injury to All-Star closer Mariano Rivera, but ended with the Yankees’ best offensive output in a dozen games.

“Great to see that from the middle of the order,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We know what these guys are capable of doing and eventually it’s going to come.”

The Yankees already led on RBI singles by Raul Ibanez and Curtis Granderson when Cano came to the plate with the bases loaded in the third inning. He connected on a 2-1 pitch from Hochevar (2-3), sending the ball over the wall in right field for his second homer of the season.

Swisher added a solo shot two batters later, and A-Rod’s homer came in the eighth.

“It took a huge day by Robbie to get us back on track,” Swisher said. “It’s just what we needed. These guys have been doing it their entire careers. We’re not stressed about it.”

Phil Hughes (2-4) took advantage of the run support to go a season-high 6 2/3 innings. It was only the second time the right-hander had allowed fewer than four runs this season.

The Royals had nine hits, but couldn’t put them together for a big inning.

“I kind of got into a groove after the second inning,” Hughes said. “The few times there were guys in scoring position, I was able to execute my pitches and get out of jams.”

Billy Butler provided an RBI double in the first, Alex Gordon added a run-scoring single in the fifth, and Humberto Quintero snapped a 0-for-18 skid with a solo homer in the seventh. Jarrod Dyson tacked on an RBI single in the ninth.

That was all the Royals could muster.

The Yankees had been having a similarly hard time scoring lately. They managed a combined 11 runs over the past five games, their worst stretch since June 2009, and were coming off a game in which Derek Jeter, Cano, Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira combined to go 1 for 15 at the plate.

They didn’t have much problem against Hochevar.

The Royals’ former No. 1 overall draft pick was battered for the second straight start, his ERA soaring to 9.00 on the season. He was yanked after 2 1/3 innings, and has allowed 16 runs and 19 hits with four walks and a hit batter his past two starts.

“I need to get back to square one and figure it out and get things going,” he said, “and start helping this club and not be putting us in a hole early in the game.”

Hochevar got in trouble right from the opening pitch, giving up a leadoff single to Jeter, who reached base four times on the afternoon. But the Yankees didn’t really capitalize until the third inning, when their bats finally awoke with a vengeance.

No. 9 hitter Dewayne Wise started a string of three straight base hits, and Granderson’s RBI single was the 1,000th hit of his career. Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to the load the bases for Cano, who delivered his first grand slam since last September against Baltimore.

Cano has five grand slams in his past 78 games, regular and postseason combined.

“You look at his at-bats today and they were really good,” Girardi said. “We know he’s a little behind where we expected him to be at this time of the year, but he’s not the only hitter in Major League Baseball that’s a little behind. He’ll catch up.”

Swisher, who had the Yankees’ other slam this season, chased Hochevar when he sent a 1-2 pitch into the seats in right two batters later. Swisher had been out since hurting his hamstring last Sunday against Detroit, but looked just fine trotting around the bases at Kauffman Stadium.

“It was just nice to be back in there,” he said.

Irving Falu provided the Royals with perhaps the only bright spot on the day.

Falu had spent more than nine years and 949 games in the minor leagues before getting his first major league start at shortstop. He tripled in his first at-bat, and then added a single in the fifth inning, coming around to score on Gordon’s base hit.

“It was great to see him and get a triple in his first major league at-bat,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “And then get another base hit, play great defense at shortstop. That was a real positive note.”

— Associated Press —

Felipe Paulino came off the disabled list to toss six shutout innings, Billy Butler drove in three runs and the Kansas City Royals beat the New York Yankees 5-1 on Saturday night.

Paulino (1-0) retired 11 straight to start the game and did not allow a ball out of the infield until Raul Ibanez singled with one out in the fifth. Paulino gave up only four hits and walked two while striking out six in his first start of the season.

Butler doubled in the first and again in the fifth, each time driving in Alex Gordon, who matched a career high with four hits. Gordon also drove in a run with a double in the sixth.

Hiroki Kuroda (2-4) allowed two runs in the first inning, one earned, which kept up a strange trend. Nine of the 18 runs he’s given up this season have come in the first.

Russell Martin’s long homer off Jose Mijares in the seventh inning represented the only run for the Yankees, who have struggled at the plate for the better part of a week.

Derek Jeter had been swinging the hottest bat on the team, but he went 0 for 4 and left four on base while also committing an error at shortstop in the first inning. Mark Teixeira also went 0 for 4.

The Royals capitalized when Jeter misplayed a grounder by Jarrod Dyson to lead off the game. Gordon followed with a clean single to right field, and Butler delivered a scorching RBI double down the third-base line to bring home both runs.

Kansas City added another in the fifth when Gordon singled for the third straight at-bat. He was running when Butler doubled into the right-field gap, allowing him to score from first.

The Royals built a cushion for their up-and-down bullpen in the sixth.

Light-hitting Chris Getz drew a leadoff walk and Alcides Escobar followed with a base hit, putting runners on the corners. Dyson’s shallow fly to left field was enough to score Getz, and Gordon’s double moments later gave Kansas City a 5-0 lead.

The way Paulino was pitching, that should have been more than enough.

After starting the season on the DL with a strained right forearm, Paulino came out flashing a 96 mph fastball that befuddled the Yankees. He didn’t allow a baserunner until Alex Rodriguez walked with two outs in the fourth, and Paulino didn’t allow a hit until the fifth.

After working out of that trouble, he got some help from Jeff Francoeur in the sixth.

Curtis Granderson doubled to lead off the inning, but he should have known better than to run on the Royals’ right fielder. Francoeur settled under a fly ball by A-Rod and then made a pinpoint throw to punch out Granderson tagging up for third base.

It was the Francoeur’s American League-leading fifth outfield assist and the 102nd of his career. He followed up by making a sliding grab on a fly ball by Teixeira to end the inning.

— Associated Press —

Leave it to CC Sabathia and Derek Jeter, a couple of grizzled veterans, to give the New York Yankees an uplifting performance when they need it the most.

Jeter hit a two-run homer to break open a close game, Sabathia went eight innings for the third straight time, and the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 on Friday night. They snapped a three-game skid while also taking a bold first step after losing closer Mariano Rivera to injury.

“We lost three in a row. We didn’t finish up the homestand the way we wanted. We had to deal with what we had to deal with yesterday. I thought it was important that we bounce back,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We cashed in four runs with two outs. It was outstanding.”

An encouraging night began with Rivera’s announcement that he plans to return from a torn ACL and meniscus damage in his right knee rather than retire, and it ended when David Robertson struck out the side in the ninth to give Sabathia (4-0) his fourth straight victory.

“CC steps up when we need it,” said Jeter, who singled and scored on Mark Teixeira’s homer in the first before delivering a two-run shot of his own during a four-run seventh inning.

“He likes to be out there,” Jeter said. “He likes to finish games.”

Jeter’s homer off Bruce Chen (0-4) was his fifth of the season, a number he didn’t reach until Sept. 4 last season. He’s batting a robust .404 this year, though he brusquely dismissed any notion that he’s playing above his own expectations.

“They are very good hitters. Right now Jeter is very hot,” Chen said. “I’m not saying he’s not a good hitter, but like right now, he’s on fire and hitting the ball well.”

The Yankees had reason to celebrate when Jeff Francoeur went down swinging for the final out.

Rivera told his teammates prior to the game that he plans to have surgery to repair a torn ACL and damaged meniscus in his right knee. The injury occurred Thursday night when baseball’s career saves leader was shagging fly balls near the warning track during batting practice.

“I’m coming back. Write it down in big letters,” Rivera said. “I’m not going out like this.”

The news appeared to give the Yankees a lift, especially after dropping their third straight game Thursday night. Sabathia was sharp on the mound and the potent New York lineup finally let loose after struggling to put up runs for the better part of a week.

“It feels good. It always feels good,” Sabathia said, “especially considering everything we’ve been through over the past day.”

Jeter’s leadoff single was his fifth hit in six at-bats in the series, and Teixeira made it hurt when he pounded a 1-1 pitch into the seats overlooking the Royals’ bullpen in left field.

Kansas City answered in the bottom half of the first. Alex Gordon followed a base hit by Jarrod Dyson with an RBI double, and Francoeur’s two-out double tied the game.

The Royals couldn’t have known that’s all the offense they would muster.

Sabathia retired 12 straight after a two-out double by Alcides Escobar in the second. Eric Hosmer broke up the streak with a two-out triple in the sixth that hit the wall just over Curtis Granderson’s head — about two feet shy of clearing the center-field fence.

Francoeur grounded out to end the inning.

Sabathia also left a runner on third in the seventh, when Mike Moustakas doubled leading off and Chris Getz delivered a base hit. Escobar grounded into a double play to end that inning.

Sabathia allowed seven hits and struck out five without issuing a walk.

“I sitting over there during the course of the game, trying to figure out a better left-hander in the game today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I couldn’t come up with one.”

Chen matched him nearly inning-for-inning until the seventh.

Cano led off with a single, but all the real damage came with two outs. Eduardo Nunez hit a go-ahead triple into the right-field corner, and Chris Stewart followed with an RBI single.

Then the big blow from Jeter, a two-run shot over the center-field wall.

Robertson finished up the game in a non-save situation. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the right-hander would likely get the first chance to save games in place of Rivera, though he did not rule out former Rays closer Rafael Soriano also pitching the ninth.

“We wanted to give him a little experience in that sense, but he also hasn’t worked in three or four days, too,” Girardi said. “You like to keep your relievers going, so we thought we would get him in there.”

— Associated Press —