Royals drop Blue Jays 5-4 in extras
The Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals went into extra innings Monday night in Missouri but the home crowd didn't leave disappointed as the Royals beat the Blue Jays with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th. The hits were spread around all game, with every starter getting at least one hit. The last starter to get a hit was Alberto Callaspo, which was the winning single.
The Royals improved to 40-52 on the season but are still 11 games behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central, despite having the best batting average as a team in the majors (.281) and the second most hits (897). The win also broke their six-game skid. The Blue Jays fell to 47-46, all but out of the playoff race since they're 12 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East despite having the most home runs (141) and ninth most RBI (414) in the league.
Each starter went at least six and gave up three earned runs. Jays starter Brett Cecil went six and a third and gave up just six hits, while Kyle Davies went seven strong innings forthe Royals and gave up 10 hits. Despite solid outings by both, neither got a decision.
Kansas City relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth picked up the win, even though he allowed the Blue Jays to take the lead in the top of the tenth off an RBI single by Jose Bautista. Toronto closer Kevin Gregg entered the game to finish off the Royals, but Scott Podsednik led off the inning with a triple and was driven home by Jason Kendal the very next at-bat. Gregg stayed on the mound despite the blown save, his third in 25 attempts, and gave up a single to Billy Butler after recording the second out of the inning. After Chris Getz came on to run for Butler, Gregg walked Jose Guillen to put Getz into scoring position. The rest was up to Callaspo.
"I hit the ball good all night long and I was just trying to find the hole," Callaspo said. "I was trying to get a pitch to drive the ball and finally I get it and help us win."
Running error could have cost Toronto the game
In the fourth inning, the Blue Jays had Adam Lind on second and Vernon Wells on third with one out. Lyle Overbay stepped up and hit a sacrifice fly to center and was plenty deep enough to score Wells. Lind, however, decided to try to take third at the same time, and center fielder David DeJesus read the play perfectly and threw out Lind at third base before Wells could cross home.
"That throw was huge," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "It saved the game for us at that point. It was key to come up throwing to third and he nipped the runner before the run could cross the plate."
Toronto's manager, Cito Gaston, didn't hide his disappointment when asked about the mistake.
"We didn't run the bases properly," he said. "We did a lot of bad things tonight that fundamentally is not good. You can't win like that. We did not deserve to win that ball game and we did not.
"We could have had a lot more runs tonight. I know sometimes you're not going to get hits to drive in runs, but just run the bases properly and we've got more runs."
Yunel Escobar stepping his game up
The Blue Jays recently acquired the shortstop Escobar in a trade with the Atlanta Braves, sending Alex Gonzalez down to Atlanta. It was received as a questionable move by Toronto, as Escobar had gone 353 at-bats without a home run this season for the Braves, while Gonzalez had hit 15 homers and is generally considered a better shortstop.
Escobar quieted his doubters in his last two games with back-to-back home runs and seven RBI since July 14.
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