TORONTO -- The Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays both had plenty of opportunities to score runs Friday night. The Royals took advantage of their chances while the Blue Jays came up empty. Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain homered as Kansas City defeated Toronto 6-1 on a glorious spring evening at Rogers Centre. Jose Bautista went deep for the Blue Jays, who left 14 men on base and were outhit 9-8. Jason Vargas outduelled J.A. Happ in Kansas Citys second straight victory over the Blue Jays, who had their nine-game winning streak end a night earlier. Toronto (32-24) was a woeful 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position. "When you get on one of those hot streaks that we were on, we were cashing those in," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "But Vargas was really, really good." The Kansas City starter allowed seven hits and one earned run over six innings. Gordon homered in the fourth and Cain added another two-run shot in the eighth to knock Happ out of the game. Despite the loss, Toronto maintained its 2 1/2-game lead on second-place New York in the American League East division standings after the Yankees dropped a 6-1 decision to Minnesota. The Blue Jays entered this four-game series on an offensive tear, piling up the runs over three straight series sweeps. The trick will be keeping that win streak hangover to a minimum. "When you win nine games in a row, you expect to come out the next day and win," said Toronto catcher Erik Kratz. "That mentality hasnt changed the last two nights. We were a couple inches away last night from winning and tonight we were a couple hits away from being back in this game." After the game, the Blue Jays announced that top prospect Marcus Stroman had been recalled from triple-A Buffalo and would start Saturday afternoon. "We want to see him as a starter," Gibbons said. "Hes been really good down there this year and this is his opportunity." Toronto looked ready to do some damage in the first inning after Jose Reyes led off with a triple and Bautista reached on a walk. But like he did all night, Vargas snuffed out the threat. "I feel something like that hopefully sets the tone for the game and fires us up," he said. "We were able to get a run the next inning and keep it moving from there." Kansas City (26-28) padded its lead when Gordon smacked his fourth home run of the season. That was more than enough offence for Vargas (5-2), who allowed seven hits, one earned run and three walks while striking out seven. Bautista gave the crowd of 21,543 a charge in the fifth with his 14th home run of the season. Edwin Encarnacion followed with a two-out walk but Brett Lawrie of Langley, B.C., struck out. Happ (4-2) was tagged for six earned runs and nine hits over 7 2/3 innings. He walked two batters and had six strikeouts. Toronto brought the potential tying run to the plate in the seventh against reliever Aaron Crow. Bautista walked and Lawrie hit a two-out single but Dioner Navarro flew out. In the eighth, Cain tacked on some insurance runs with his second home run of the season. "This is more of the offence that we envisioned coming out of spring training," said Royals manager Ned Yost. "Were not going to be a club thats going to lead the league in home runs but weve got home run power that we havent used." Recent triple-A callup Bobby Korecky relieved Happ in the eighth and retired the lone batter he faced. With the bullpen in need of a rest, he stayed on for the ninth and retired the Royals in order. Korecky was sent back down after the game. Notes: Stroman pitched in a relief role earlier this season before being stretched out again in Buffalo. The move also allows the Blue Jays to give Drew Hutchison -- whos coming off Tommy John surgery -- a little more rest. Hutchison will now start Tuesday. ... Bautista threw out a runner at first base for the second straight night. Omar Infante hit a flare into right field that he thought was going into the seats. Bautista slid and trapped the ball after it bounced before getting Infante in plenty of time at first base. "I dont know if youll see a better play in baseball today than that play right there," Yost said. "Omar hit the ball and lost it, he thought it was foul. For Bautista to come, smother the ball, one, and then still see that he had a play at first base, I dont think Ive ever seen a play like that. Tremendous play." ... Encarnacion, who has hit 16 homers this month, walked three times. ... The game took three hours one minute to play. ... Right-hander Aaron Brooks (0-0) is scheduled to start Saturday for the Royals. ... The Blue Jays have homered in 12 of their last 13 games. ... Korecky has a microscopic 0.29 earned-run average with five saves in 22 games with the Bisons. . Jeter doubled high off the left-field wall and scored on Jacoby Ellsburys first hit in pinstripes in the fifth. Hiroki Kuroda (1-1) pitched 6 1-3 sharp innings in the Yankees 112th opener in New York. In what manager Joe Girardi said would be a season-long lovefest for Jeter, the shortstop was cheered every step of the way by an adoring crowd of 48, 142 -- even when his double-play grounder back to Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2) scored Solarte in the third inning for the first run. . -- Masahiro Tanaka knows that first appearance in a spring training game for the New York Yankees will be scrutinized.
https://www.cheapcoyotes.com/. - The Clippers have signed guard Dahntay Jones to a second 10-day contract. . -- The Kelowna Rockets earned their 16th straight win with a 7-2 rout of the Portland Winterhawks in Western Hockey League action Thursday. . The England international raised his middle finger toward Manchester City supporters during Saturdays game at Etihad Stadium, which Arsenal lost 6-3. The incident was not seen by match officials at the time but the FA charged Wilshere retrospectively after a study of video footage.Despite making the playoffs for the first time since joining Major League Soccer, Montreal Impacts 2013 season ended with a massive letdown. It wasnt just the 3-0 loss at Houston in the Eastern Conference Knockout Round that hurt; it was the manner of the defeat and the total loss of discipline. As the team prepares to head to Orlando for the final stage of their training camp, there is a different feel around the Impact squad following the appointment of new head coach Frank Klopas to replace the fiery Swiss manager Marco Schallibaum. "Frank is settling in. He has put certain messaging and systems in place," Impact sporting director Nick De Santis said on TSNFC this week. "We made the right decision to move forward and go in a different direction and up until now, we have a very good relationship with Frank. We know what he wants and he knows what we want." "If we go back to that game in Houston, the result, the actions by certain players can give you an idea of what went on for the last two months, the last 10 games of the season. It was very frustrating." "In my position and in Joeys (Impact president Joey Saputo) position, the easiest thing to do was to reconfirm Marco because we set out our objectives at the beginning of the season and we met those objectives – being in the playoffs, winning the Canadian Championship – but when you are making decisions of what is best for the club going forward and whats best for the players, we felt that we needed to go in a different direction." With just over three weeks until the Impact open up the 2014 season, and after a quiet offseason in terms of player signings, De Santis says the club is still looking to add "one or two pieces" to the team. It seems the club is close to announcing the signing of young Uruguayan striker Santiago Gonzalez, who De Santis first met in Argentina on a scouting trip in November. "I managed to see him in my last trip to Argentina and watched him live," De Santis told TSNFC. "Hes a young player but a player with certain qualities that I think can help our team get better up front.dddddddddddd Were still dealing with a few issues but were hoping that is something that can get done, hopefully even before we get to Orlando on the weekend." While Montreals squad hasnt seen as many additions as most teams across MLS, De Santis believes some of the players they have retained from last year will be in a better position to produce top quality performances on a consistent basis. "Hernan Bernadello played half a season last year and I think now you can say that hes basically a new addition because the first six months was an adaptation period. With him now being with the team from day one, he will bring a lot more to the table. We have Nelson Rivas healthy and hopefully we can manage him well and he can give us a good amount of games because when he is on the field feeling well physically and with his head in the right place, he can be a dominant defender in this league." On Monday, the Impact announced the return of Argentine midfielder Andres Romero, who joins the team on loan from Brazilian club Tombense for the second successive season. Romero showed glimpses of his ability in 2013, scoring two goals in 30 regular season appearances, but De Santis expects there is much more to come this season from the former Argentina U20 international. "Were happy that Romero is back because he is another player that showed very good signs in certain moments," said De Santis. "When his wife gave birth to twins, she went back to Argentina and thats when we saw his consistency level had gone down. We just want to make sure now that hes in the best environment for him to be as consistent as possible." With other teams getting much stronger during the offseason, the Eastern Conference will be a fierce battleground in 2014. Repeating the accomplishment of making the playoffs will be a difficult task for Montreal, but with the core of a squad that led the East on a number of occasions throughout the first half of the 2013 season, the Impact feel they are well positioned to hit the ground running when their season opens in Dallas on March 8. ' ' '
