Royals fall to Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle 6-2

Starting pitchers Mark Buehrle and Chris Young don’t light up radar guns. They throw strikes, work efficiently and get outs.

The difference in the Blue Jays’ 6-2 victory over the Royals in front of 30,790 fans at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday was Buehrle’s worst pitch cost his team one run, and Young’s cost the Royals two.

“It’s a bad feeling as a pitcher, letting the team down with one pitch,” Young said. “But you have to live with it.”

Young’s pitch, a slider in the fourth inning that Edwin Encarnancion drove into the Royals’ bullpen, produced two runs and gave the Blue Jays a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

“It wasn’t a horrible pitch,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “A slider that got up a little bit. When he first hit it, I wasn’t sure it was going to get out.”

Nor was Paulo Orlando convinced. He got back to the wall and leaped, eluding the grab by “a few feet,” he said.

Any chance of a Royals’ ninth-inning comeback died when former Royals third baseman Danny Valencia crushed a Brandon Finnegan offering over the center-field wall for a three-run homer.

The loss snapped the Royals’ six-game winning streak, but at 51-34 they’re guaranteed to lead the American League Central at the All-Star break, which begins after Sunday’s series finale.

Young, 7-5, working on short rest having pitched on Tuesday, delivered a solid performance. In six innings he yielded five hits, four strikeouts and two walks.

He was charged with three runs when the Blue Jays extended their lead to 3-1 in the seventh. Young surrendered a single to Kevin Pillar to open the inning before exiting, and Pillar scored what at the time appeared to be an important insurance run.

Especially after the Royals matched the run in the seventh when Alex Rios turned his line shot past Valencia into a hustle double. Omar Infante’s drive to center was deep enough to move Rios to third.

Orlando’s two-hopper to short drove in Rios and cut the deficit to 3-2. The Royals were in it, until Valencia went deep.

The teams were working on little sleep. Friday’s game started at 9:17 p.m., after a two-hour weather delay, and the Royals’ 3-0 victory didn’t end until after midnight.

But the Royals got off to a fast start Saturday when Alcides Escboar jumped on Buehrle’s first pitch and sent it to the right-field gap for a ground-rule double.

That was Beuhrle’s mistake. Mike Moustakas bunted Escobar to third, and Kendrys Morales got his team-leading 58th RBI by grounding out to shortstop.

The Royals tried to cash in on a sacrifice bunt in the second inning but came away empty.

Rios was hit by an 82-mph offering, and Infante bounced an infield single.

Orlando pushed both into scoring position with his bunt, but Drew Butera struck out looking and Jarrod Dyson was out on a ground ball back to Buehrle.

The sacrifice-bunt attempts were not the product of a Yost order.

“These guys have a style of play they like and they have confidence in each other,” Yost said. “Moose puts the bunt down knowing Morales is going to get the runner home. I’m sure Paulo is thinking the same thing. If I can get two runners over and trust the guys behind me to get guys in and we can pad the score.”

Not a bad idea considering who was on the mound.

Buehrle, 10-5, won his fourth straight decision against the Royals and his 13th at Kauffman, the most at any park. Most of those occurred while Buehrle pitched for the Chicago White Sox.

At one point, Buehrle retired 14 straight, a streak that ended only when second baseman Devon Travis lost Morales’ pop fly in the sun.

“He hits his spots and works really quick,” Dyson said. “And he’ll throw the kitchen sink at you, no matter if you’re hitting lefty or righty. You’ve got to tip your hat to him.”

The Blue Jays came into the game having been shut out in their previous two games, and the scoreless streak extended to 27 innings.

It ended in the fourth on Encarnacion’s moon-shot home run that also scored Jose Bautista, who had just recorded the Jays’ first hit.

“If the pitch was executed a little better, it might have been a pop-up,” Young said. “But he’s a good hitter. It was a mistake. I didn’t make too many today, but he got it.”

Blue Jays 6, Royals 2

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E: Infante (6). LOB: Toronto 10, Kansas City 4. 2B: Reyes (15), A.Escobar (16), Rios (5). HR: Encarnacion (18), off C.Young; Valencia (6), off Finnegan. RBIs: Reyes (31), Valencia 3 (25), Encarnacion 2 (53), K.Morales (58), Orlando (12). SB: Reyes 3 (14), Pillar (13). CS: Ru.Martin (4). S: Moustakas, Orlando.

Runners left in scoring position: Toronto 6 (Donaldson, Bautista 3, Carrera, Pillar); Kansas City 2 (J.Dyson 2). RISP: Toronto 2 for 10; Kansas City 0 for 5. Runners moved up: Carrera, K.Morales, Infante, Orlando.

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C.Young pitched to 1 batter in the 7th.

Holds: Schultz (3). Inherited runners-scored: F.Morales 1-1, Madson 2-0. HBP: by Buehrle (Rios). WP: F.Morales.

Umpires: Home, Ron Kulpa; First, Jerry Meals; Second, Jim Wolf; Third, Adrian Johnson. Time: 2:42. Att: 30,790.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Royals fall to Blue Jays, Mark Buehrle 6-2."