Off Topic » o -- 95 per cent of his pitches are fastballs and

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Alcides Escobar is a maestro with his glove, making the kinds difficult of plays at shortstop that has helped to make the Kansas City Royals one of the best defensive teams in baseball. On Wednesday night, Escobar showed he can swing the bat a bit, too. His two-run double in the seventh inning proved to be the difference in a tense 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. "Hes been very consistent," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Hes always been an important part of our club because of his defence. He saves runs in the field. But when you add offence to that, he becomes a very special player." Eric Hosmer drove in the other two runs for the Royals, whose bullpen blew a 2-0 lead for young starter Yordano Ventura before holding on to beat Toronto with a late rally for the second straight night. Kansas City won the series opener 10-7 behind a six-run eighth inning. Kelvin Herrera (1-1) stranded runners on second and third in the seventh, and Wade Davis struck out Jose Reyes to leave the bases loaded in the eighth. Greg Holland worked around a double in the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries. "You play 162 games. Youre going to see a lot of things happen," Holland said. "The mark of a good bullpen is when you have guys pick each other up when they get in jams." Drew Hutchison (1-2) allowed all four runs on five hits in seven innings for Toronto. The 23-year-old right-hander, who missed last season after Tommy John surgery, kept the Royals mostly off balance until Escobar guided his double down the left-field line with two outs in the seventh. Jimmy Paredes and Salvy Perez scored easily to give Kansas City the lead. "I got ahead of him. I went right at him. I thought I made a good pitch," Hutchison said. "Thats a situation where I expect myself to thrive and get the job done, but I didnt." The Royals improved to 14-0 when scoring at least four runs -- they remain 0-12 falling short of that mark. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in their last seven games. Toronto also lost outfielder Melky Cabrera in the sixth inning when he was hit in the left shin by a pitch from Danny Duffy. Cabrera needed to be helped off the field, though X-rays taken at the ballpark came back negative and a team spokesman said he was day to day. The Royals manufactured a 1-0 lead through driving rain in the first inning with a double by Nori Aoki, a sacrifice bunt and Hosmers sacrifice fly. They tacked on another run in the fourth when Hosmer followed a double by Omar Infante with one of his own. As long as Ventura was pitching, it seemed that would be enough. The Blue Jays struggled to catch up to the 22-year-olds triple-digit fastball, managing just two hits over five innings. But they were more successful at avoiding stuff off the plate, driving up his pitch count and forcing him from the game after five innings and 92 pitches. "It was cold out there," Ventura said through a translator, fellow starter Jeremy Guthrie. "Naturally, it was a little more difficult to command." Thats when Royals manager Ned Yost called on Duffy, who hit Cabrera in the left shin with his first pitch. Cabrera dropped to the grass in foul territory and stayed there several minutes, eventually getting helped through the dugout and to the clubhouse by the Blue Jays trainers. Duffy proceeded to walk Jose Bautista on five pitches and was yanked for Aaron Crow, who gave up singles to Edwin Encarnacion and Juan Francisco that tied the game 2-all. Crow finally escaped the inning, and the Royals bullpen held Toronto down the rest of the way. "Its frustrating, but at the end of the day I need to do a better job to give us a chance to win after we came back and scored two runs," Hutchison said. "I was in complete control going into the seventh. It comes down to that its on me and I need to get the job done." NOTES: Toronto left 11 runners on base. ... Bautista finished with 30 walks in April, matching Fred McGriffs club record for a single month. ... Blue Jays INF Brett Lawrie (sore back) was held out of the lineup. Manager John Gibbons called him day to day. ... RHP Jeremy Guthrie starts the series finale Thursday night for Kansas City. LHP Mark Buehrle starts for Toronto. Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic .Hammel pitched inside more and it helped him get into the seventh inning as the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 on Friday night. NFL Jerseys China . Head coach Lindy Ruff confirmed on Sunday that his starting goalie has a head injury and the team will take it day by day. http://www.jerseysnhlfromchina.us/."; Bach is in Rome for the European Olympic Committees general assembly and meetings with Pope Francis. He also visited with Italian Premier Enrico Letta. "The prime minister appeared to be interested in a bid from Italy for 24, because he has realized that the games can serve as a catalyst for development for a city and a country," Bach told The Associated Press on Saturday. Wholesale Jerseys .C. -- Clemson celebrated a senior class Saturday that brought the program back as a national contender. Wholesale NHL Jerseys . With the team he supported as a child on the verge of reaching the Champions League semifinals for the first time in 19 years, Ba instead scored the goal that knocked them out.ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels caught up with Bartolo Colon on Sunday. Mike Trout, Pujols and Raul Ibanez hit consecutive home runs off Colon in the first inning and the Angels routed the New York Mets 14-2. "Anytime you can hit three home runs in a row, thats pretty special. Ive been through that before in my career," Pujols said. "Everybody knows what Bartolo is going to do -- 95 per cent of his pitches are fastballs and he pounds the strike zone." Hank Conger also went deep against Colon, who won the AL Cy Young Award in 2005 with the Angels. Over the previous four seasons, he was 6-1 with a 1.75 ERA in nine starts against the Angels. "Hes had our number, but today wasnt his day," Pujols said. "Hes a guy whos aggressive in the strike zone and we executed our game plan pretty well. If you look at last year, it seemed like every time we faced him he pretty much pitched seven or eight strong innings. So we wanted to get the jump on him early." The Angels also hit a pair of doubles in the first inning against Colon (1-2). Colon gave up nine runs and 11 hits in five innings, allowing at least one hit to every batter in the Angels starting lineup after pitching seven scoreless innings last Tuesday night in Atlanta. "At that moment, youre not thinking: Why is this happening? Its just part of the game," Colon said through a translator. "Everything felt all right. They just felt a little bit better than me." The four homers and nine earned runs against the 40-year-old Colon equaled a career worst in both categories. "Even though Bartolos had our number, it seems like all the runs we scored off him today were the ones weve needed the last two years off of him," Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson said. "Hes absolutely dominated us, and today was a complete aberration. Ive never seen him get hit like that before in person." Wilson (2-1) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking three. Mets third baseman David Wright and secoond baseman Daniel Murphy were ejected in the top of the seventh by plate umpire Toby Basner.dddddddddddd Wright and Murphy were called out on strikes earlier in the game. Both took exception after Basner called out Travis dArnaud at-bat. It was the fourth career ejection for Wright and the first for Murphy. "Im not going to comment on the umpires. Im not going to get into any more trouble than Im already in. Ive said my peace down on the field and Im just going to leave it at that," Wright said. "We have each others backs. And when something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. There were some disagreements. Its frustrating," he said. Wilson got seven of his strikeouts on called strikes. "You cant really get a scouting report on the umpires and try to change too much with that. You have to pitch to the hitters," Wilson said. "But it wasnt like the guy had some crazy strike zone. Its just that they were up there looking for pitches that I wasnt throwing, which is why they took the strike three calls." During the singing "God Bless America" in the seventh-inning stretch, Mets manager Terry Collins stood next to Basner at home plate. The two could be seen chatting. The Angels came out swinging and got all three of their homers in a span of seven pitches. Trout drove his fourth of the season into the centre field trees with one out and Pujols hit his third into the left field bullpen. Ibanez, who hit a tying, three-run shot off closer Jose Valverde in the ninth inning Saturday night for his 2,000th career hit, connected against Colon before the Angels added another run on doubles by Kole Calhoun and Ian Stewart. Stewart later homered. NOTES: The Angels hit three straight homers for the first time since July 27, 2009, when Juan Rivera, Kendrys Morales and Mike Napoli did it. ... Colon was the first Mets pitcher to yield three in a row since June 8, 2012, at Yankee Stadium, when Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones connected against Johan Santana. ' ' '