Duffy, Hosmer lead Royals past Blue Jays
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Danny Duffy won his seventh straight decision and Eric Hosmer delivered a clutch two-run single as the Kansas City Royals downed the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 Saturday night.
Duffy (8-1) limited the Blue Jays to two runs and five hits over 6 2/3 innings, while striking out six and walking two.
Aaron Sanchez (11-2) absorbed the defeat, snapping his personal 10-game winning streak. Sanchez was replaced by Danny Barnes to start the seventh, after giving up four runs on nine hits.
Raul Mondesi's triple to right in the sixth brought home Paulo Orlando, who had two hits, to cap the Royals' scoring.
Toronto's Devon Travis opened the game with a home run for the second straight day. Travis hammered a 2-2 Duffy pitch an estimated 394 feet out to left-center. Duffy had allowed just one hit over eight scoreless innings in his previous start.
Sanchez did not give up a hit until the fourth inning when Lorenzo Cain and Hosmer hit back-to-back singles with one out. Cain motored to third on Hosmer's ground-ball single to center. Cain promptly stole second with Kendrys Morales at the plate.
Sanchez rebounded to strike out Morales swinging and retired Salvador Perez on a ground ball on the first pitch to strand the runners.
The Blue Jays made it 2-0 in the top of the fifth. Kevin Pillar led off the inning with a double to right and scored on Travis' two-out single on a full-count pitch.
The Royals forged ahead in the bottom of the inning with three runs. Alex Gordon, who was hitting .199, led off with a single. Paulo Orlando then had an infield single and Mondesi snapped an 0-for-15 with a bunt single to load the bases with nobody out.
Alcides Escobar's infield single off the glove third baseman Josh Donaldson scored Gordon. Hosmer's two-out single scored Mondesi and Escobar. Sanchez burned 24 pitches to survive the inning.
NOTES: RHP Dillon Gee registered his first quality start Friday since April 27, 2015, but with the Royals off Monday he will be moved back two days in the rotation. His next start will be Aug. 13 at Minnesota. ... The Blue Jays traded Pat Venditte, the first known ambidextrous pitcher in big league history, to the Seattle Mariners. Venditte had a 5.19 ERA in eight relief appearances with Toronto before being shipped to Triple-A Buffalo, where he was 2-1 with a 4.35 ERA. ... Josh Donaldson started at third base for the Blue Jays after being struck on the left ear flap by a Kelvin Herrera 92 mph changeup in the ninth inning Friday. Donaldson had some swelling on his left cheek but passed all concussion tests. ... Blue Jays RHP Marcus Stroman and Royals RHP Yordano Ventura are the Sunday probables.