Saturday, June 06, 2009
Sports NewsMayfield's Mutterings: Springing into Mutterings


Blue Jays rough up Greinke, beat Royals 9-3

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[June 06, 2009]  TORONTO (AP) -- Adam Lind and Lyle Overbay hit solo home runs and the Toronto Blue Jays gave Kansas City ace Zack Greinke a rare pounding in handing the Royals their eighth straight loss, 9-3 on Friday night.

Rod Barajas added a two-run shot for the Blue Jays, who boosted Greinke's ERA from 1.10 to 1.55.

HardwareSeeking to join Toronto's Roy Halladay as the only nine-game winners in baseball, Greinke (8-2) was instead tagged for a season high seven runs - five earned - and nine hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out three. The right-hander dropped to 1-4 with a 7.07 ERA in his career at Rogers Centre.

Overbay extended his hitting streak to 11 games when he lined a one-out drive to center in the second, snapping Greinke's streak of 111 innings without allowing a home run. The last player to homer off Greinke was Oakland's Daric Barton, who took him deep Sept. 2, 2008.

Misc

Greinke allowed four runs - three earned - in a 7-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday and has won just one of his past four starts after winning seven of his first eight.

The Blue Jays were the first team to score an earned run off Greinke this season, managing two against him in an 11-3 defeat at Kansas City on April 29.

This time, they jumped all over him. Marco Scutaro doubled and scored on a two-out single by Vernon Wells in the first, Overbay homered in the second and the Blue Jays piled on with a four-run third.

Alex Rios hit an RBI double and later scored on Tony Pena's throwing error, with Overbay capping the rally with a two-run double off the base of the wall in right.

Lind made it 7-0 with a one-out homer to left in the fifth, his ninth, and Barajas homered off reliever Juan Cruz in the eighth.

Blue Jays left-hander Ricky Romero allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to win for the first time since April 19.

Romero (3-2), who missed 24 games following that victory with a strained right oblique, walked two and struck out five.

A tiring Romero allowed all three Kansas City runs in the seventh, when Jose Guillen and Mike Jacobs hit back-to-back home runs. Guillen's drive, his sixth, was a two-run shot. For Jacobs, the homer was his 10th.

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Jason Frasor worked the eighth and Scott Downs finished it in the ninth for Toronto.

Scutaro went 3 for 4 with three doubles while Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill finished 0 for 5 and is hitless in 25 at-bats.

Notes: The Blue Jays celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first game at the former SkyDome with a partial reunion of the AL East-winning 1989 team. Including current manager Cito Gaston, 11 former players and coaches were honored on the field in the middle of the sixth. ... Toronto's Triple-A pitching coach, Rick Langford, will be with the team until June 17 as pitching coach Brad Arnsberg and then bullpen coach Brad Walton attend high school graduation ceremonies for the eldest children. ... Blue Jays OF Alex Rios gave a pregame apology after he was caught on video yelling profanities at a fan.

Photographers

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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