Jeremy Guthrie’s incentive to win had nothing to do with beating his former team.

The right-hander was far more interested in helping the Kansas City Royals maintain the momentum they generated during the first five weeks of the season, and in that regard, his outing against the Baltimore Orioles was a success.

Guthrie allowed one earned run in six innings, and the Royals hit a season-high three homers in a 6-2 victory Thursday night.

Facing the Orioles for the first time since they traded him to Colorado in February 2012, Guthrie (5-0) gave up seven hits and three walks while lowering his ERA to 2.28.

During his five seasons with Baltimore, Guthrie won 47 games and started three times on opening day. In his return to Camden Yards, his focus was entirely on helping the Royals end a three-game skid.

”I was just trying to win the game,” Guthrie said. ”We had a nice April and we’re trying to stay consistent here and compete against good teams.”

And pitching against Baltimore?

”I think someone else put it this way: We’ve turned the page,” Guthrie said.

Orioles manager Buck Showalter said exactly that.

”I didn’t pay much attention to that part of it,” Showalter said. ”We’ve kind of turned the page.”

After going 3-9 with Colorado, Guthrie has been a star for the Royals since his arrival last July. He’s 10-0 since Aug. 8 and has gone a franchise-record 18 straight starts without a loss. This outing was more of the same.

”I executed a few pitches, made a couple mistakes,” he said. ”But our offense did what we’ve been doing all year when I’ve been out there – score big runs, tack on a couple of extra ones.”

Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer both connected against Freddy Garcia (0-1) with a runner on in the fourth inning to put Kansas City up 4-0. It was Gordon’s third home run in three games and Hosmer’s first in 145 at-bats dating to last year.

Mike Moustakas homered in the seventh to make it 5-2. The Royals came in with an AL-low 19 home runs, so the three long balls served as a rare power surge.

”We broke out and hit some homers,” manager Ned Yost said. ”(Hosmer) got on the board with a homer. Alex is swinging the bat really well. And Moose did a great job, left-on-left, hitting a slider. Good to see that.”

Chris Davis homered for the Orioles, whose season-high run of four straight wins ended. It was the fourth time this year that Baltimore missed a sweep by losing the final game of a series.

Making his second start with the Orioles, Garcia gave up four runs, five hits and a walk in six innings.

”I felt pretty good,” the right-hander said. ”One bad inning, two bad pitches. I was behind in the count to both hitters and I gave up two home runs, five runs. I was trying to do my best and tried to keep the guys in the game. That’s all I can do.”

Baltimore got an unearned run in the second inning, courtesy of shortstop Alcides Escobar’s third error in two games. After Escobar’s poor throw enabled Adam Jones to reach first, Matt Wieters singled and J.J. Hardy drove in a run with a bloop single to center.

It was the first time in three starts that Guthrie gave up a run. He was coming off his first career shutout, a four-hitter against the White Sox

Garcia retired the first 10 batters he faced, a streak that ended when Lorenzo Cain got an infield single with one out in the fourth. Gordon followed with a shot over the right-field scoreboard, and after Billy Butler singled, Hosmer hit an opposite-field drive into the left-field seats – his first homer since Sept. 11.

”It was definitely a sigh of relief,” Hosmer said. ”I knew it was a pretty long time. I wasn’t too worried about it. I just wanted to stay with my approach and try to stay through the middle and not miss good pitches.”

Davis got the Orioles to 4-2 in the bottom half with his 10th home run.

Moustakas greeted rookie reliever T.J. McFarland with a leadoff homer in the seventh. Moustakas also homered on Wednesday night.

— Associated Press —

The Baltimore Orioles boldly ran the bases without fear of being caught, and Kansas City couldn’t do a thing about it.

A comedy of errors ensued, and the Orioles escaped with a 5-3 victory Thursday night despite allowing two home runs and getting only five hits.

J.J. Hardy homered and Manny Machado scored a run and hit an RBI single for the Orioles, whose season-high fourth consecutive win moved them eight games over .500 (21-13) for the first time this year.

”We’re playing good baseball right now,” said Hardy, whose two-run drive in the second inning put Baltimore ahead for good.

But the game was decided in the fifth, when the Orioles went up 5-1 with a three-run uprising fueled by three Kansas City errors and a wild pitch.

After Chris Dickerson hit a leadoff double, shortstop Alcides Escobar grabbed Nate McLouth’s sharp grounder and tried to get Dickerson at third, but the throw hit Dickerson to put runners at the corners.

McLouth promptly stole second, and Machado followed with a single to bring home Dickerson. Machado then stole second, and McLouth came home after Escobar couldn’t handle the poor throw from catcher George Kottaras. Escobar’s throw home was also off target, allowing Machado to take third, and he scored when starter Luis Mendoza uncorked a wild pitch.

”When we can pick up on errors like that, it’s huge,” Machado said. ”That brings up the momentum for us and brings it down for them. That’s baseball.”

The way Royals manager Ned Yost saw it, the first bad throw laid the groundwork for the miscues that followed.

”The key to that inning was if Escy just takes the out at first, they only get one run,” Yost said. ”He tried to make a play, tried to keep it close to him by going to third. He just threw low and hit him in the back of the spike and that got a rally going. Now you got (runners at) first and third instead of just a runner at third. Then they start taking off and everything falls apart.”

Escobar lamented both his poor throws, saying, ”I can’t believe that I made stupid errors like that.”

Baltimore has been outhit in each of its past three games, including 7-5 in this one. The Orioles are 3-6 when outhit by their opponent.

”You know, at the end of the day, it’s whoever scores the most runs, so we made key hits today,” Machado said. ”We had key hits from J.J. on that home run. Myself driving in that run. . Our goal is to get on base and get deep into counts and bring in those runs when they get on.”

Chris Tillman (3-1) allowed three runs and five hits in six innings to win his third straight start. The right-hander came in 0-2 with a 10.93 ERA in three career starts against the Royals.

Troy Patton pitched the seventh, Darren O’Day and Brian Matusz worked the eighth and Jim Johnson got three outs for his 13th save.

Johnson has converted 34 straight save opportunities, tying the club record set by Randy Myers in 1997.

”It’s good, obviously, but that’s a secondary goal of mine,” Johnson said. ”Obviously winning the game is always the first objective.”

Alex Gordon hit his second home run in two games and Mike Moustakas went 3 for 4 with a homer for Kansas City.

Mendoza (0-2) gave up five runs, three earned, and five hits in six innings.

Baltimore took a 2-0 lead in the second when Matt Wieters led off with a single and Hardy followed with a drive just inside the left-field foul pole. It was his sixth home run of the season, the third in four games.

Mendoza didn’t allow another base runner until Hardy drew a two-out walk in the fourth.

Tillman blanked the Royals on two hits through four innings, then retired the first two batters in the fifth before Gordon homered to right. That ended Tillman’s run of consecutive scoreless innings at 15, a streak that began on April 27 in Oakland.

— Associated Press —

The Baltimore Orioles usually like to slug their way to victory.

On this occasion, they were quite content to get the pivotal run via a walk, an errant pickoff throw and a well-placed fly ball.

Matt Wieters drove in three runs, including the tiebreaker in the eighth inning, and the Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 Tuesday night on a soggy night at Camden Yards.

After blowing a three-run lead, the Orioles went back on top in the eighth. Adam Jones drew a leadoff walk from Tim Collins (1-1) and advanced when Luke Hochevar threw wildly to first base on a pickoff attempt. Wieters then lofted an opposite-field fly to left that appeared to hit the foul line for a double.

”I was hoping,” Wieters said. ”I was leaning it and I was pretty excited when the umpire made the fair signal.”

The Orioles came into the game with 39 home runs, including 17 that gave them the lead and four that tied it. On this night, they found a different way to win.

Besides scoring in unusual fashion in the eighth, Baltimore turned three double plays and got a fielding gem from shortstop J.J. Hardy.

”When you don’t walk people and you catch the baseball the way we did tonight, you give yourself a chance to win those types of games,” manager Buck Showalter said.

The Royals, on the other hand, got a huge home run from Alex Gordon. But they were done in by a walk and an error.

”The leadoff walk is something that’s going to get you in trouble just about every time, especially late in the game,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said.

Tommy Hunter (2-1) worked 1 1-3 innings of relief and Jim Johnson got three straight outs for his 12th save.

It was the fourth win in five games for the Orioles, who moved within a game of first-place Boston in the AL East.

”This team grinds it out,” Hunter said. ”This team is fun to watch for everybody. Nobody should ever leave the stadium, I’ll tell you that much, under any circumstances.”

Even on a brisk, wet night.

Baltimore starter Wei-Yin Chen had a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning when rain forced a 48-minute delay. After play resumed, Brian Matusz got an out before yielding a two-run homer to Gordon.

Chen allowed two runs and nine hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Ervin Santana gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings for Kansas City. The right-hander walked one and struck out four.

”First inning I was always in trouble, but after that I settled down and threw a lot of strikes and blew guys away,” Santana said.

Baltimore went up 3-0 in the first. Singles by Manny Machado, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones produced a run before Wieters hit a two-out, two-run double.

”I missed that one. He hit a mistake,” Santana said.

In the third, former Oriole Miguel Tejada hit a one-out single and scored on a single by Alcides Escobar. In the bottom half, Tejada made a diving stop of Jones’ grounder to third and made a successful throw to first while in a sitting position.

Hardy saved a run with a sparkling dive-and-throw play in the fourth. With two outs and a runner on second, Hardy went to the edge of the outfield grass to snare a grounder by Salvador Perez before throwing to first while on his knees.

Santana regrouped from his shaky start to retire 12 straight batters until Nate McLouth singled with two outs in the fifth. Machado followed with a single before Markakis hit a fly to left.

— Associated Press —

Jordan Danks just had to wait a short while for a second chance.

The backup outfielder atoned for his baserunning blunder in the ninth inning by hitting a solo home run in the 11th that lifted the Chicago White Sox over the Kansas City Royals 2-1 Monday.

”I knew that was going to be my shot to do something,” Danks said. ”I wasn’t trying to do too much. But you got a guy throwing 97, 98 (mph), he’s going to provide most of the power. Like coaches have been telling you since Little League, get something good to hit.”

Danks connected with two outs off Kelvin Herrera (2-3) for his first homer of the season. The White Sox avoided a three-game sweep and won for only the fifth time in 18 tries in Kauffman Stadium.

Danks entered in the ninth as a pinch-runner. Moments later, he got caught in a rundown between third and home after Alexei Ramirez hit a tying, bases-loaded infield single with two outs.

”It makes it a little bit better, yeah,” Danks said with a grin. ”I told them I did it on purpose so I could come up and hit a homer.”

Chicago starter Chris Sale, who spent most of the day matching James Shields pitch for pitch, said the dugout ”went nuts” when Danks homered.

”That’s always fun to watch,” Sale said. ”Emotions are high. You’re tense. Someone goes up and does that, it’s fun.”

The White Sox trailed 1-0 before loading the bases with no outs in the ninth. After Paul Konerko grounded into a home-to-first double play, Danks entered as a pinch-runner at second base for Adam Dunn.

Conor Gillaspie was intentionally walked to load the bases. Ramirez followed with an infield single up the middle that made it 1-all, but Danks was tagged out on the play, ending the rally.

”He got caught in no man’s land,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. ”Even in the dugout, you’re thinking about trying to send him. It’s too late to tell him to stop. That wasn’t his fault. That’s on us. That’s just an aggressive play. I’d rather be like that than not be aggressive.”

Jesse Crain (1-1) pitched one scoreless inning for the win. Addison Reed worked the 11th for his 11th save in 12 opportunities.

Shields threw eight shutout innings and handed a 1-0 lead to Greg Holland starting the ninth.

Royals manager Ned Yost said he was not tempted to let Shields work the ninth.

”Everybody has their job to do and Shields had done his,” Yost said. ”He threw eight shutout innings. It was a one-run game. The runs make all the difference. If it was a two-run or a three-run lead, yeah. But in a one-run game, (if) you send him out he’s either going to win it or lose it. You let the closer go out and try to do his job.”

Shields, who lost to Sale 1-0 on opening day in Chicago, allowed two hits and struck out a season-best nine. He walked two.

”I felt good out there,” Shields said. ”I felt like I had all my pitches working. I struggled early in the game getting ahead of hitters, and I gave up a couple of walks. But for the most part it was a tough battle. When you’re facing Sale, it’s going to be tough.”

Sale was almost as sharp, going 7 1-3 innings and allowing one run on six hits, with five strikeouts and no walks.

”I kind of fell into a groove,” Sale said. ”Sweeps will kill you. James Shields was awesome, actually. But to keep our heads in the game and grind it out, it says a lot about who we are.”

Alex Gordon hit a leadoff single in the first for Kansas City and scored when Billy Butler lined a double down the left-field line.

After Gordon’s two-out single in the third, Sale retired 15 straight batters until Salvador Perez doubled into the gap with two out in the seventh.

— Associated Press —

Down to his final strike, Billy Butler came through.

Butler’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth tied it for Kansas City before Alex Gordon won it an inning later with an RBI single to lift the Royals to a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.

”I figured he might go something off-speed and he just left it up and I put a pretty good swing on it and got it to the gap,” Butler said. ”I was still sitting on a fastball, but you can’t eliminate any pitches. He just got it up in the zone. I put a barrel on it and something good happened.”

The Royals have 11 come-from-behind victories in their 17 wins this season.

”We continue to fight,” Butler said. ”We just don’t give up. We never lost focus or our desire to come back. It’s not going to happen every night, but we just continue to put pretty good at-bats together.”

Lorenzo Cain led off the 10th with his third hit and stole second with one out. With two outs, Chris Getz was intentionally walked and George Kottaras then walked on five pitches, loading the bases for Gordon.

Gordon singled on the first pitch from rookie Brian Omogrosso (0-1), who made his first appearance since being called up Wednesday.

Greg Holland (1-1) worked a perfect 10th after relievers Tim Collins and Aaron Crow allowed four runs in the seventh for the White Sox to take a 5-3 lead.

”Our bullpen is not going to give up too many leads I feel like,” Holland said. ”When it does, our lineup steps up and really gets after it and take good at-bats back-to-back. We’re really tough on pitching staffs right now.”

Butler’s tying double scored pinch runner Chris Getz and George Kottaras. Addison Reed blew his first save in 18 opportunities dating to Aug. 25. He was 10 for 10 in save chances this season.

”I was wild,” Reed said. ”I couldn’t get comfortable. I walked the first two guys and I wasn’t even close. I was all over the place. The 3-2 pitch to Butler was a hanging slider, it was a terrible pitch. I wanted to make the best pitch I could and I hung it and he made me pay for it.

”It stinks everybody before me threw their butts off and the offense came through, and I let them down.”

Alex Rios homered and drove in two runs and Alejandro De Aza contributed a two-run double for the White Sox.

Royals reliever Tim Collins started the seventh with a 3-1 lead, but allowed three runs on three hits without retiring a batter. In his past two outings, Collins has yielded five runs on seven hits and gotten only two outs.

Chicago scored four times in the seventh. Aaron Crow threw a wild pitch that let one run score and Rios hit his team-leading seventh home run.

Royals right-hander Wade Davis, who had allowed 15 runs on 20 hits and seven walks in 8 1-3 innings in losing his previous two starts, held the White Sox to one run on five hits in six innings.

Davis gave up a run in the third on Rios’ groundout with the bases loaded.

”Every time we come here these guys give us a hard time,” Rios said. ”When you’ve got the lead you feel good and they hurt you at the end. We have to keep grinding.”

White Sox left-hander Jose Quintana held the Royals hitless for four innings before they scored three runs in the fifth. Miguel Tejada and Alcides Escobar had RBI singles and the other run scored on second baseman Jeff Keppinger’s error.

— Associated Press —

Jeremy Guthrie went from the scrapheap to the top of the heap.

Guthrie ran his unbeaten streak to a club record 17 consecutive starts with a four-hitter in the Kansas City Royals’ 2-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night.

Guthrie is 9-0 in the 17 starts, which started against the White Sox on Aug. 8, 2012. Left-hander Paul Splittorff held the Royals’ record with 16 straight undefeated starts in 1977-78.

This is in complete contrast to where Guthrie was at the start of last season. He went 3-9 with a 6.35 ERA with the Colorado Rockies, losing his final six decisions, before the Royals acquired him in a July 20 trade for left-hander Jonathan Sanchez.

”It was three long months there,” Guthrie said. ”I’d hate to bottle up seven years in the major leagues to three months, but certainly it wasn’t going well. In baseball, you can never take anything for granted. Someone can be on top of the game one month and in three or four months you can be out of the game.

”I was very fortunate to come over here.”

Guthrie gave credit to pitching coach Dave Eiland, catcher Salvador Perez and the Royals defense.

”That really helped me be able to get back on track and get that confidence back that I lacked with the struggles I had in Colorado and be able to feed off that,” Guthrie said.

It was Guthrie’s first shutout and fifth complete-game. Three of his previous complete games were eight-inning losses. His only previous complete-game victory came Aug. 8, 2008, for Baltimore at Seattle.

”He really kind of solidified our starting rotation when he got here last year,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”From that point on, I think it’s a great story. He was really struggling in Colorado and we made the deal for him and he just completely turned his career around. He’s worked very hard. He’s been very productive and very successful.”

Paul Konerko singled in the second and doubled in the fourth for the only White Sox hits until the eighth inning.

Tyler Flowers and Alejandro De Aza singled in the eighth, but Jeff Keppinger’s grounder to shortstop Alcides Escobar ended the inning.

Guthrie (4-0) threw 11 or fewer pitches in every inning except the fourth and eighth, when he threw 21 apiece.

Guthrie is 3-0 with a 0.40 ERA in six starts with the Royals against the White Sox, allowing two earned runs and 30 hits in 44 2-3 innings.

”He’s been tough on us,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. ”First, because he’s good. He was throwing it in and throwing it out. His off-speed was keeping us off balance. He seems to pick it up when we’re facing him. They’ve got good defense, too. There were a couple of little rollers and difficult kinds of plays, and they made them. He was Maddux-like, going for the two-hour mark. You have to pick your poison, you go after him early and then you pop it up. He’s tough.”

Dylan Axelrod (0-1) nearly matched Guthrie, but yielded a two-run triple to Lorenzo Cain in the first inning. Cain’s triple to the right-field corner scored Billy Butler, who was hit by a pitch, and Eric Hosmer, who singled for the first of his three hits.

Axelrod was pulled after Salvador’s Perez’s single with two out in the eighth. He gave up eight hits, walked one, hit two batters and struck out none, throwing 70 strikes in 113 pitches.

”It’s one of those games where Axe was good, but Guthrie was better,” Ventura said. ”That one ball to Rios (Cain’s two-run triple), a few feet closer and we’re still out there.”

Hosmer tripled to start the Royals’ third inning, but was stranded.

Chris Getz and Escobar singled in the second, but Billy Butler flied out to right to end the Royals’ threat.

Axelrod recorded his first 12 outs with fly balls before Butler grounded out to begin the fifth inning.

— Associated Press —

Rain started to fall at first pitch, and by the time the Kansas City Royals’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays was postponed Thursday afternoon, Kauffman Stadium resembled a snow globe.

Fat flakes were sticking to the field, and members of both teams popped out of their dugouts to take in a spectacle more suited to January or February. There hasn’t been measurable snow in May in Kansas City since 1907.

No makeup date was set and the game will be replayed in its entirety – Kansas City led 1-0 midway through the fourth inning when it was called. The Rays weren’t scheduled to return to Kansas City again this season.

”It’s not just about playing five innings. It’s about playing nine,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. ”If you don’t think you can get in nine innings, I think it’s the appropriate thing to do.”

The Royals were ahead after an RBI single by Alex Gordon. But once the tarp was pulled onto the field, it began to appear increasingly unlikely that Kansas City wouldn’t get the three more outs it needed to qualify for a win.

Naturally, that left plenty of Royals frustrated.

”I said, ‘Let’s throw down some dirt and let’s try to get it in,”’ said Royals outfielder Jeff Francoeur, adding that the game shouldn’t have been started if it wasn’t going to be finished.

”We played four innings. Why not play one more?” Gordon asked. ”Now we just have to cancel another off day and play it again.”

Kansas City already has had three games postponed due to weather, and another against the Red Sox postponed during the search for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last month.

The Rays had a game against Boston rained out on April 12.

”I think they pushed the envelope as far as they could to get the game in,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”They did everything they could do to get as far as we could.”

The temperature was 41 degrees with winds gusting to 31 mph and rain just beginning to fall when the Royals’ Ervin Santana threw the first pitch. The conditions continued to deteriorate as some of the players, dressed in stocking caps and gloves, ran in place to stay warm.

”It was not good from the very first pitch,” Maddon said. ”It was slick, nasty and cold and raining. It’s not your typical good baseball day.”

When snow starting to fall, the creative team operating Kauffman Stadium played the Yule Log video on the massive screen in center field and ”Let It Snow” on the loudspeakers.

The game was delayed 2 hours, 20 minutes before the umpires finally called it.

None of the makeup options are appealing.

Two mutual days off would each force the Royals to play more than 20 consecutive days, and July 29 would mean Kansas City would have to swing home between games in Chicago and Minnesota, and the Rays would have to stop by while returning home from New York.

The Royals play at Tampa Bay from June 14-16.

While the game was suspended, the grounds crew optimistically tried to get the field ready should a window allow its completion. First, they used a couple of big fans to blow air under the tarp and dry out the infield dirt. Then, they peeled back half of the tarp and prepped one half of the infield, recovered it, and peeled back the other half to do the same thing.

They even managed to paint fresh lines during a short period of light precipitation, only for the freezing rain to pick up again and the tarp to go back on the field.

When the delay reached the 2-hour mark, the rain turned to snow, and members of the Rays and Royals started popping up in their dugouts to take pictures of the flakes falling.

The high temperature barely eked over 40 degrees, and that was overnight, unofficially breaking the record for coldest high temperature on May 2 of 48 degrees set in 1917.

It could be even worse on May 3, too.

The White Sox are due in town Friday night to start a three-game series, but the forecast calls for temperatures in the 30s and a 50-percent chance of precipitation at first pitch.

”I try not to get frustrated over things I can’t control,” Yost said. ”I can’t control the weather. I’ve tried before and it never worked. You just deal with it. It is what it is.”

— Associated Press —

James Shields admitted that it felt a little weird when he stepped on the mound for Kansas City on Tuesday night, peered into the batter’s box and saw a former Rays teammate standing at the plate.

”That’s a team over that knows me real well,” Shields said.

Turns out Shields knows them even better.

After allowing a two-run homer to Matt Joyce in the first, Shields only allowed three more hits over the next six innings. That kept the Royals in the game long enough for Mike Moustakas to hit a go-ahead two-run homer and spur Kansas City to an 8-2 victory over Tampa Bay in the series opener.

”It was pretty obvious the emotion was really, really high,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”James has really bonded with his teammates, and I think his teammates knew how big of a game it was for him.”

Kansas City has been looking for a legitimate No. 1 starter for years, and finally made the bold decision in December to acquire Shields and fellow right-hander Wade Davis from Tampa Bay for a package of prospects that included minor league player of the year Wil Myers.

The Rays’ career leader in just about every significant pitching category, Shields (2-2) hasn’t done anything to disappoint his new organization. He lost 1-0 to the White Sox on opening day, tossed a complete game in a 3-2 loss to Toronto, and has gone at least six innings in every start.

On Tuesday night, he helped the Royals snap a two-game skid and finish 14-10 in April, a dramatic improvement from the 6-15 mark that they carried into May a year ago.

”He looked a little different standing out there in a different uniform,” said the Rays’ Desmond Jennings. ”He was mixing up his pitches – he was Shields. He’s good, man.”

Early on, Shields may have been too amped up facing his former team.

Jennings singled off his first pitch and Joyce followed with his homer over the right-field wall. It was the 15th straight game in which Tampa Bay hit a home run, tying the franchise record.

”The first hit of the game, a little check-swing by Des, and I fell behind the count against Joyce, and you can’t do that,” Shields said. ”I knew I had to grind it out.”

Meanwhile, Alex Cobb (3-2) was keeping the Royals’ scuffling offense at bay.

The Rays’ starter allowed just four hits over the first five innings, and at one point, the only ball hit out of the infield over a span of 12 batters was a measly single by Elliott Johnson.

”He threw the ball great for them, mixing his pitches,” Moustakas said. ”One inning, you know, kind of turned the game around for us.”

That inning came in the sixth.

Cobb had retired the first two batters Eric Hosmer doubled and Lorenzo Cain drove him in with a single, snapping the Royals’ streak of 15 consecutive scoreless innings.

Moustakas then connected against Cobb over the right-field fence for his first homer since Sept. 14, a span of 129 at-bats. Jeff Francoeur followed with a double and Salvador Perez’s RBI single made it 4-2. Cobb was lifted when Johnson singled again, ending his night after 5 2-3 innings.

”When I walked off the mound, I think that was the most angry I’ve ever been after a game,” said Cobb, who pitched into the ninth inning against the Yankees his last time out. ”I felt like from pitch number-one, I was going to have a smooth, easy-sailing game and go as deep as I could.”

Cobb wound up allowing four runs on 10 hits.

”It fell apart very quickly and that was unusual to see,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. ”Shields was really good. Cobb was outstanding to that moment.”

The Royals built a cushion in the seventh off Rays reliever Brandon Gomes. Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, and Hosmer scored from third when Cain stole second and catcher Jose Molina threw the ball into center field.

Francoeur followed with an RBI triple, giving the Royals a 7-2 lead and Shields the rest of the night off. The Kansas City bullpen pitched two scoreless innings to finish things up.

”The guys had my back – they always do – and that’s what this team is all about,” Shields said. ”We’re real resilient. We had a couple of tough losses, but we fought back hard tonight. We have a lot of character on this team and we showed it again tonight.”

— Associated Press —

From the moment that Ubaldo Jimenez started to warm up in the bullpen, and noticed the run on his fastball, he had a pretty good idea that this night would be unlike any other this season.

Any other in quite a while, for that matter.

The Indians’ right-hander baffled the Kansas City Royals while pitching into the eighth inning, Ryan Raburn belted two home runs to pace the Cleveland offense, and the result was a 9-0 win Monday night that salvaged a split of a four-game series.

”It felt really good,” said Jimenez, who hadn’t won in his past 12 starts. ”When I saw the run on my fastball, I said, ‘We have to take advantage of that.”’

Jimenez (1-2) certainly did, allowing only two walks and an infield single by Billy Butler over his first seven innings.

Along the way, he started to resemble the pitcher who once threw a no-hitter for the Colorado Rockies and earned a spot in the All-Star game.

”You’re always looking to be encouraged,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, ”but we flew right past encouraged and got sideways. … That was just so much delight tonight.”

The Royals couldn’t have gotten a more different outing from Wade Davis.

The right-hander was shelled for the second straight start, this time allowing eight runs and 12 hits and three walks in 4 2-3 innings. Davis (2-2) only last 3 2-3 innings his last time out.

”I made some bad decisions and didn’t execute,” Davis said.

The Royals won the first two games of the series, but were outscored 19-3 over the final two, unable to solve spot starter Corey Kluber on Sunday night and baffled by Jimenez on Monday.

A former All-Star, Jimenez has struggled mightily over the past couple of years, and hadn’t won a game since Aug. 9, 2012. He’d lost his last eight decisions, and had been especially dreadful of late, allowing 18 earned runs in 11 innings over his past three outings.

The Royals couldn’t solve him, though.

Jimenez faced the minimum number of batters through the first three innings, and would have been flirting with another no-hitter had Butler not hit a grounder to the right of shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera with two gone in the fourth. Cabrera was too deep in the hole to throw out Butler at first base, resulting in the Royals’ only hit until the eighth inning.

”Any time you have an outing like Ubaldo’s,” Raburn said, ”it makes it all more fun.”

Jason Kipnis hit his first home run since Sept. 13 with one out in the first for Cleveland, and Michael Brantley’s leadoff double and a base hit by Cabrera in the third made it 2-0.

Davis kept minimizing the damage until the fifth, when Brantley’s one-out double again stirred up trouble. Kipnis walked and Cabrera followed with an RBI double. Mark Reynolds added a two-out base hit, and Carlos Santana’s run-scoring double pushed Cleveland’s lead to 5-0 lead.

Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland came out to visit Davis, but it didn’t do much good. Raburn’s three-run shot, his first homer since May 15, 2012, finally chased him from the game.

”A tough night. They hit some good pitches off Wade, but they hit some mistakes, too,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”Wade wasn’t up in the zone, but a lot of the balls they hit were catching a little too much of the plate down.”

Mike Moustakas doubled leading off the eighth against Jimenez, and a single by Jeff Francoeur finally ended his night. Reliever Nick Hagadone left both runners stranded by retiring three straight batters, though, preserving Jimenez’s fine performance.

”He threw the ball well,” Moustakas said. ”He got ahead of us early and mixed his pitches well. That’s a great pitcher out there. His track record speaks for itself. We had an off-day. He was mixing in three or four pitches. He had a good sinker with good action. He was getting ahead 0-1 and putting us in a hole nearly every at-bat.”

— Associated Press —

Mike Aviles hit a three-run homer and finished with a career-high five RBIs, and the Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 10-3 on Sunday night to split the first day-night doubleheader in Kauffman Stadium history.

The Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie shut down Cleveland in a 9-0 victory in the opener, but Will Smith (0-1) couldn’t do the same after getting recalled from Triple-A Omaha for the night-cap.

The Indians scored twice off Smith in the second inning. Aviles hit his homer in the third, and then he added sacrifice flies in the fourth and seventh innings against his former team.

Corey Kluber yielded only Chris Getz’s two-run blooper in the fourth in a stellar spot start for Cleveland. Kluber (2-0) lasted seven innings and retired his final 10 batters.

Carlos Santana had four hits and drove in a run in Game 2 for the Indians, while the Royals committed three errors that helped lead to four unearned runs.

In the opener of a doubleheader caused by Friday night’s rainout, Guthrie (3-0) allowed six hits over 6 2-3 innings for his 16th consecutive start without a loss. That matched the Kansas City record set by Paul Splittorff from Aug. 13, 1977-April 22, 1978.

”I knew it’s been a number of starts in a row, because people kept reminding me of it,” Guthrie said with a smile. ”Ultimately, it means a lot because hopefully the guys behind me when I go out are confident that we have a chance to win the game.”

Confidence was perhaps the biggest thing that Guthrie was missing last season in Colorado. He was just 3-9 with a 6.35 ERA before a trade to Kansas City, but went 5-3 with a 3.16 ERA the rest of the way, earning a $25 million, three-year contract from the Royals in November.

Guthrie’s gone at least six innings in all four of his starts this season.

”I have the kind of confidence I want to go into each start with,” he said, ”that good stuff or not, I can keep us in it and give us a chance to win the game.”

Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon homered to pace Kansas City.

Escobar’s solo shot came in the fifth inning and Gordon’s two-run homer came in the eighth, capping a big afternoon for the Royals offense. Jarrod Dyson also drove in a pair of runs, and Mike Moustakas had a single and three walks – one with the bases loaded.

”The walks to Moustakas were big,” Indians manager Terry Francona conceded.

Justin Masterson (4-2) allowed seven runs in 6 1-3 innings for the Indians. The right-hander, who entered the game with a 1.85 ERA, was trying to join Bob Lemon, Greg Swindell and Cliff Lee as the only pitchers in franchise history with five wins in April.

Instead, Masterson got roughed up by the bottom of the Royals’ lineup.

”Justin Masterson is such a good pitcher, and going into the game, my mind was prepared for a low-scoring affair,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”I thought we’d have to squeak out some runs.”

So much for that. The only close call off Guthrie came in the second inning.

Santana hit a drive to center that hit off the green padding atop the wall. The ball bounced back into play and was ruled a double, and the call was upheld when the umpires checked the replay. Santana was left stranded when Guthrie retired Ryan Raburn and Lonnie Chisenhall.

”It was close,” Francona said. ”I wish it had went about 2 inches further.”

— Associated Press —