Blue Jays 9 Royals 8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Adam Lind hit a grand slam and Jayson Nix added a three-run homer to power the Toronto Blue Jays to a 9-8 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
Corey Patterson snapped an 0-for-11 skid with four hits and scored two Toronto runs.
Blue Jays starter Carlos Villanueva (4-0) had one rough inning, the fourth when he allowed four runs, but pitched seven innings, allowing six hits. Villanueva has won his past eight decisions since his last loss, Aug. 17, 2009 at Pittsburgh.
Nix’s home run off rookie left-hander Danny Duffy with Aaron Hill and Rajai Davis aboard put the Blue Jays up 5-4.
Nate Adcock, who replaced Duffy, retired the first two batters in the sixth before walking Mike McCoy and giving up a single to Patterson. Jose Bautista, who leads the majors with 20 homers but has none in 10 games, was walked intentionally, to bring up Lind.
Lind, who had a two-run homer Tuesday, hit the 1-0 pitch out to left for his second career grand slam. Lind’s first grand slam was Aug. 31, 2009 at Texas.
Juan Rivera drove in the first two Blue Jays runs with singles in the first and third innings.
Villanueva, who has held opponents to a .156 batting average on the road, gave up a three-run homer to Melky Cabrera in the third. Alex Gordon’s sacrifice fly drove in the first Kansas City run.
Billy Butler’s three-run homer with two out in the eighth off Octavio Dotel cut the Blue Jays lead to two runs. Jeff Francoeur, who had three hits, and Eric Hosmer, who walked, scored on Butler’s fifth home run.
Casey Jensen worked the ninth for his first save since 2009, but gave up a RBI-double to Gordon with two outs.