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Royals hold off Jays for win

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays gave the Kansas City Royals all the help they needed.
Brett Lawrie
Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie bare hands the ball on his way to throwing out Kansas City Royals Jeff Francoeur during third inning AL action in Toronto on Thursday

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays gave the Kansas City Royals all the help they needed.

Whether it was reliever Francisco Cordero failing to cover first base to allow two runs to score, or two players who were doubled up on line outs, the Blue Jays were in a generous mood on Thursday.

And as a result the Royals held off Toronto for a 9-6 victory to earn a four-game series split.

Eric Hosmer led Kansas City with three runs batted in.

Cordero failed to cover first base on Hosmer’s grounder to second that could have ended the eighth with one run scored.

But the reliever was late getting to the bag and two runs scored for an 8-3 Royals lead.

“Coco (Cordero) is well aware of it, he’s a stand-up guy,” manager John Farrell said. “He’s trying to get the most out of the stuff he has and yet a couple of seeing-eye base hits, a broken-bat base hit, but the lapse at that point is a key moment in the game.”

The Blue Jays came back with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, two on a pinch-hit triple by Ben Francisco.

Salvador Perez had a career-best four hits for the Royals to extend his hit streak to 11 games.

J.P. Arencibia hit two home runs for Toronto (42-41) and had three runs batted in for the game.

Toronto’s Henderson Alvarez (5-7) allowed eight hits in 5 1/3 innings and all five of the runs charged to him were in the third inning when the Royals sent 10 batters to the plate.

“They did their job staying on his stuff,” Farrell said. “I thought Henderson had quality pitches throughout but there were some base hits that found holes and there were a couple of walks that prolonged the inning.”

Luke Hochevar (6-8) allowed four hits in five innings and two runs, both on a home run by Arencibia in the third. He left after five innings after suffering a right ankle sprain in the bottom of the fifth while covering first base.

Yuniesky Betancourt homered for the Royals (37-44).

The Blue Jays had a couple of possible threats blunted by poor base running. Rajai Davis lined to short and Betancourt made the catch and doubled up Yunel Escobar at second to end the fourth.

Jose Bautista lined out to third and that ended the game when Colby Rasmus was doubled off first base and Jonathan Broxton picked up his 21st save.

“Obviously the read is to freeze on the line drive and yet we’re a couple of strides in to try to advance a base and it ends up costing us,” Farrell said. “We’re going to remain aggressive but we still have to play heads up baseball.”

The Royals struck for five runs in the third. It started with one out when Perez singled, Jarrod Dyson doubled, and Alex Gordon walked to load the bases.

Alcides Escobar and Hosmer singled in runs, then two more runs were scored on an infield single by Billy Butler and a throwing error by third baseman Brett Lawrie.

Arencibia homered after Kelly Johnson’s leadoff double in the third to cut the lead to 5-2.

Hochevar injured his ankle while running to cover first base on Rasmus’ infield single in the fifth. He stayed in the game and struck out Bautista to finish the inning.

Left-hander Tim Collins took over from Hochevar in the sixth and gave up Arencibia’s second homer of the game and 13th of the season with one out in the seventh before being replaced by Greg Holland.

Alvarez was replaced by left-hander Luis Perez with one out in the sixth after a single by Salvador Perez. Right-handed reliever Sam Dyson made his major-league debut for the Blue Jays in the seventh, replacing Perez with two out. Dyson had a walk and a strikeout to finish the inning.

The 24-year-old was promoted from double-A New Hampshire to replace Canadian right-hander Scott Richmond, who was returned to triple-A Las Vegas after Wednesday’s game.

Cordero allowed three runs in the eighth on five singles. But the final two runs scored on Hosmer’s grounder to second became an infield hit when Cordero was late covering first.

Farrell said Cordero made another fielding mistake in the inning.

“A ground ball back to him gets under his bare hand where it looks to be a tailor-made double play as well,” Farrell said. “Those two defensive plays certainly contributed to the crooked number on the scoreboard and as it turns out they became costly especially after we were able to put three runs back on the board.”