Royals 4 - 1 Mariners
Final
  for this game

Blanton outpitches King Felix as Royals beat M's

Jun 23, 2015 - 5:11 AM Seattle, WA (SportsNetwork.com) - Joe Blanton allowed two hits over six-plus innings, Alcides Escobar had three hits with one RBI and the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 in the opener of a three-game series on Monday night.

Blanton (2-0) gave up a solo home run to Robinson Cano with two outs in the first inning. He retired the next 16 batters before a leadoff double by Austin Jackson in the seventh ended his outing, which included seven strikeouts.

"Anytime you can go six innings and not pitch out of the stretch, odds are you got a pretty darn good game," Royals manager Ned Yost said about Blanton's performance.

Kelvin Herrera finished the seventh, stranding Jackson at third, Wade Davis pitched a perfect eighth and Greg Holland worked around a walk in the ninth to earn his 14th save.

Blanton outpitched Seattle ace Felix Hernandez (10-4), who allowed four runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Mariners right fielder Nelson Cruz left in the seventh with an injury.

"His pelvic bone kind of popped out of place...and they had to pop it back in," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said of Cruz's injury. "What they're telling me is it's going to be very short term (recovery)."

After Cano staked the Mariners to a lead with his first home run since May 30, the Royals answered with two runs in the second, then added one in the third.

Salvador Perez hit a one-out double in the second and scored on a two-out single to center field by Alex Rios, who alertly moved to second on Jackson's throw home. That proved beneficial as he was able to score when Omar Infante followed with a base hit to left.

Escobar led off the third with a single and scored on a double by Mike Moustakas.

It remained a 3-1 game until Hernandez surrendered an RBI single to Escobar on his last pitch.

Game Notes

Jackson extended his hitting streak against Kansas City to 14 games ... The Royals opened a nine-game road trip ... Seattle won five of seven meetings against Kansas City last year.






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