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Royals pound out 16 singles in win over Mariners

May 10, 2014 - 6:42 AM Seattle, WA (SportsNetwork.com) - Jason Vargas tossed seven shutout innings and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Seattle Mariners, 6-1, in the second test of a four-game set.

Vargas (3-1), who pitched in Seattle for four seasons from 2009-12, struck out six and surrendered just three hits for Kansas City, which had dropped six of its last eight games coming in.

The Royals tallied 16 hits, all singles.

"The more hits we get, the higher the averages get," KC manager Ned Yost said. "I don't care how we win the game, as long as we win the game."

Brandon Maurer (1-1) allowed six runs -- four earned -- on 14 hits over 7 1/3 innings for the Mariners, who had won six of their last seven tilts coming in.

"Most of them were bleeders or hit perfect in the right spot," Maurer said.

The Royals raced out to a 6-0 lead through eight innings of play.

Nori Aoki and Eric Hosmer singled to lead off the game and put runners on the corners before Aoki scored on Billy Butler's force out.

Alcides Escobar began the third with a single, stole second, scampered to third on Aoki's sacrifice bunt and came home on Hosmer's sacrifice fly into left.

Salvador Perez and Hosmer singled to begin the fourth to put runners on the corners. Perez was pushed across when Brad Miller committed a throwing error on Johnny Giavotella's grounder. Lorenzo Cain then grounded into a double play, which allowed Hosmer to come across for a 4-0 margin.

Giavotella's RBI groundout in the sixth and Cain's RBI single in the eighth made it 6-0.

James Jones' RBI double in the home eighth finally got Seattle on the board.

Game Notes

The Royals were 1-for-12 with runners on scoring position and left nine men on base ... Seattle was 0-for-6 with RISP.