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McGowan, Blue Jays top reeling Royals

May 25, 2008 - 10:16 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff continued its recent dominance over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Dustin McGowan pitched seven solid innings and Shannon Stewart had a pair of hits and an RBI as the Blue Jays posted a 3-1 victory over the struggling Royals.

McGowan (3-4) gave up one run and scattered nine hits over his outing, striking out seven. The righthander did not walk a batter.

"(The) defense played great behind me," McGowan said. "Alex Rios throwing out a runner at home was big and Shannon Stewart throwing out the runner at third was big. So it was really nice."

The outing followed back-to-back complete games from Roy Halladay and Jesse Litsch on Friday and Saturday, respectively, as Toronto has allowed just two runs over the first three contests of this four-game series.

The Royals, who lost for the seventh consecutive time, had chances Sunday but could not make the most of their opportunities.

Trailing, 1-0, in the fourth, Kansas City had a chance to score when Jose Guillen doubled with one out and rounded third on Billy Butler's single to center. But Rios fired in a perfect one-hop strike to the plate, getting Guillen out and keeping Toronto in front.

"I was trying to make a low throw in case we didn't have a chance at home," Rios said. "I wanted to keep the guy from first (from) going to second. I was going to throw anyway, so I guess I made a good throw and we got him at home."

"It took a perfect throw on Jose, he's out by two or three steps," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "Rios made the perfect throw."

The Royals again threatened in the fifth when Ross Gload led off with a single and Tony Pena and Joey Gathright both reached on bunt singles to load the bases.

Kansas City was able to tie the game on a David DeJesus' sacrifice fly to left, but left fielder Stewart threw out Pena trying to advance to third. McGowan struck out Esteban German to escape any further trouble.

"That's the best throw I've ever seen Shannon Stewart make," Hillman said. "If I was coaching third and if I was running second, I would have done exactly the same thing as we did today."

The Blue Jays quickly regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth when Brad Wilkerson doubled and moved to third on Rod Barajas' single to left.

Stewart reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Wilkerson and giving Toronto a 2-1 lead.

Toronto added an insurance run in the seventh when Rios drove in Barajas with a two-out single to center to make the score 3-1.

"We're up 2-1 in the late innings ... we're going to win that game," Toronto first baseman Lyle Overbay said. "That's the confidence level we've got to have and I think we've changed. Hopefully we can keep it going."

Scott Downs pitched a scoreless eighth and B.J. Ryan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two for his 11th save and securing Toronto's fourth straight win.

Kansas City starter Gil Meche (3-7) allowed two runs and five hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked two.

"Location wasn't as good as my previous start," Meche said. "But I was able to throw pitches when I needed to. I just couldn't quite put them away."