Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez each homered to power the Kansas City Royals to a 6-1 victory over the visiting Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
Royals starting pitcher Randy Dobnak (3-3) pitched six solid innings, allowing one run on four hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
Bobby Witt Jr. was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs and Nick Loftin added two hits for the Royals (64-80). Kansas City relievers Anthony Gose, Jose Cuas, Connor Thomas and Nolan Hoffman combined to toss three scoreless innings.
Josh Smith had a solo shot and Brett Bateman recorded three hits for the Blue Jays (72-72) who had their four-game winning streak snapped. Toronto fell one game behind the Cleveland Guardians for the American League’s third wild-card spot.
The Royals opened the scoring in the first when John Rave reached on an infield single and Witt walked before Pasquantino launched a towering three-run homer to right.
Witt led off the third by roping a double to left. After Pasquantino flied out to right, Perez hit a moonshot, two-run home run over the wall in left-center as Kansas City’s advantage grew to 5-0.
After Bateman collected the Blue Jays’ first hit by slicing a line drive to left in the fourth, Nathan Lukes flied out to deep center. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Loftin slickly fielded the hot shot and flipped it to Witt, who completed the twin killing.
Kansas City took a 6-0 lead with two outs in the fifth on Loftin’s RBI single that scored Pasquantino. Braydon Fisher relieved Toronto starter Spencer Arrighetti (7-9), and after walking Isaac Collins, struck out Luke Maile swinging.
Smith golfed a low sweeper over the fence in right and Toronto cut its deficit to 6-1 in the sixth. Later, with two outs, Bateman and Lukes both reached via singles. But with runners on first and third, Guerrero grounded out to end the threat.
Arrighetti allowed six runs on six hits with three walks and three strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.
