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Chen, Royals down Blue Jays

Aug 24, 2011 - 5:53 AM Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Bruce Chen pitched brilliantly on Tuesday, throwing 7 2/3 strong innings to guide the Kansas City Royals to a 6-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game series at Rogers Centre.

Chen (9-5), a journeyman who has pitched for 10 teams in his major league career, gave up three runs on four hits. He fanned a season-high nine batters and issued only one walk.

"I felt like I had all of my pitches there," Chen said. "We played really good baseball and it was a nice victory for all of us."

Joakim Soria gave up a run in the ninth, but recovered to record his 23rd save of the season.

Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer cracked home runs, while Johnny Giavotella added an RBI double and Salvador Perez added two RBI for the Royals, who opened this series with a win after losing three of four to the Boston Red Sox over the weekend.

Yunel Escobar clubbed a three-run homer and Brandon Morrow (9-8) was tagged with the loss after giving up six runs on 11 hits over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked one.

In the top half of the second, the Royals plated three runs against Morrow and stayed in front for good. Hosmer led off the frame by rocketing a ball deep over the wall in dead center field for the first run of the game. Following the homer, Jeff Francoeur doubled and Giavotella slapped a single that Colby Rasmus over-ran in center field to score a run. Giavotella crossed the plate with the third run of the inning on a base hit by Perez.

Kansas City added three more runs in the fifth to make it a 6-0 game. Butler clubbed a Morrow offering over the wall in center for the first run of the inning, and Hosmer cued an infield single that catcher Jose Molina was unable to handle. Following a Francoeur strikeout, Giavotella smacked a double to left, scoring Hosmer, and Perez ripped a triple to center to bring home Giavotella.

The Jays finally got to Chen in the sixth inning when Molina ripped a one-out single and Mike McCoy beat out an infield single to third to put runners on first and second with one out. Escobar then cut the deficit in half by launching a moon shot deep into the seats in center to make it a 6-3 game. Chen battled back though and induced a flyout from Eric Thames, then fanned Jose Bautista to preserve the lead.

In the ninth, Toronto picked up an RBI single from Adam Lind to make it a two- run game and brought the tying run to the plate with one out. Soria got Edwin Encarnacion to pop out, then fanned pinch-hitter Mark Teahen to end the game.

"I thought overall Chen did a very good job at keeping us out on our front foot, really disrupted our timing," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.

Game Notes

Tuesday's game kicked off a 10-day, 10-game road trip for the Royals, with stops in Cleveland and Detroit in addition to Toronto...Prior to the game, the Blue Jays acquired second baseman Kelly Johnson from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for infielders John McDonald and Aaron Hill...Francoeur went 4- for-5 and has a hit in 15 of his last 19 games...The game was delayed in the seventh inning due to fans entering the field of play...Kansas City leads the season series by a 3-2 count.