Billy Butler and Jose Guillen had RBI doubles in a three-run fifth inning that lifted the Kansas City Royals to a 5-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.
Leading 2-1 entering the fifth, the Royals put the game away and chased Toronto starter Mark Rzepczynski (0-1) in the process. Mike Aviles led off with a triple and came around to score on Butler's double. Butler advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the Royals' fourth run on Guillen's two-base hit to center field.
One out later, with Rzepczynski replaced by Casey Janssen, Brayan Pena singled home Guillen to make it 5-1. The Royals cruised from there to take two out of three against the visiting Blue Jays.
Zack Greinke (6-9) was sharp, limiting the Jays to six hits over eight innings while striking out nine. Joakim Soria pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 26th save.
Rzepczynski surrendered all five Kansas City runs on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out three in his second start of the season.
John McDonald and Lyle Overbay drove in runs for Toronto, which fell to 4-2 on its 10-game road trip.
Toronto | Kansas City | |
Marc Rzepczynski | Player | Zack Greinke |
Loss | W/L | Win |
4.2 | IP | 8.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 9 |
9 | Hits | 6 |
9.64 | ERA | 2.25 |
Toronto | Kansas City | |
Vernon Wells | Player | Brayan Pena |
3 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 4 |
.750 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Toronto | 8 | 0 | 10 | .235 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Kansas City | 10 | 0 | 17 | .303 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |