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Blue Jays keep Royals winless at home

Apr 22, 2012 - 3:52 AM Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Colby Rasmus went deep twice and drove in four runs and Edwin Encarnacion added a home run and three RBI, powering the Blue Jays past the struggling Royals, 9-5, in the second meeting of a four- game series.

Kansas City remains winless at home (0-8) -- the longest drought to start a season in franchise history -- and has lost nine straight overall.

Rasmus and Encarnacion each had three of Toronto's 14 hits to back Drew Hutchinson in his major league debut. The 21-year-old Hutchinson (1-0) recorded his first win despite allowing five runs on eight hits and three walks over 5 1/3 frames.

"I battled out there," Hutchinson admitted. "The offense did a great job and the defense made some really great plays."

The Royals did not have enough firepower to survive Luis Mendoza's poor start and subpar relief efforts by Everett Teaford and Kelvin Herrera. Mendoza was charged with four runs on 10 hits in 3 1/3 innings, Teaford (0-1) gave up three runs in his three-inning stint and Herrera served up a pair of home runs.

Eric Hosmer and Alex Gordon each homered and Alcides Escobar went 4-for-4 in defeat.

Kansas City went ahead 5-4 following a four-run fifth inning, but the lead was short-lived after Brett Lawrie began the sixth with a single and trotted home when Rasmus blasted a screaming line drive into the right-field seats.

Darren Oliver stranded runners on the corners in the bottom half by striking out Mitch Maier and getting Yuniesky Betancourt to hit a sinking liner that was caught by Jose Bautista in right.

Herrera wasn't as effective in relief in the away seventh, entering with one on and one out and promptly serving up Encarnacion's fourth home run of the season. Rasmus came up two batters later and slugged another homer to right.

Oliver and Carlos Villanueva combined to keep the Royals in check the rest of the way.

In the first inning, Gordon welcomed Hutchinson to the big leagues by finding the first row of seats in center field for his second home run of the season.

Mendoza was roughed up for four runs in the fourth, which began with Adam Lind doubling to right and scoring on Encarnacion's one-out base hit. The next four hitters all singled to chase Mendoza, with Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia and Yunel Escobar all driving in runs.

"Mendoza's stuff went in streaks. He would throw some good pitches with nice down action and pretty good sink to his fastball. Then he threw some pitches that were flat," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "They're (the Jays) mostly dead pull hitters and you've got to keep the ball down in the zone and work it on the ground. It wasn't his best start."

Bautista lined into a double play with the bases loaded to end the inning, and the Royals responded with four runs of their own in the fifth.

Maier hit a stand-up triple into the right-field gap to plate Alcides Escobar and scored on Betancourt's single up the middle. Hosmer's two-run blast later in the inning landed in the seats in right-center, just short of the waterfalls.

Game Notes

The Blue Jays improved to 8-6 on the young season...The last Blue Jays starter to win his MLB debut was Ricky Romero on April 9, 2009. Romero will pitch Sunday opposite KC's Danny Duffy...Hutchinson, a 15th-round pick of the Blue Jays in the 2009 draft, had made three starts at New Hampshire of the Double-A Eastern League before getting his contract purchased...Rasmus recorded his third career multi-home run game...Kansas City reliever Greg Holland, who suffered the loss in the opener of this series, was placed on the 15-day disabled list before the game. Pitcher Jeremy Jeffress was recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take his place on the roster.