KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kyle Davies matched his career high with eight strikeouts in eight innings and combined with closer Joakim Soria on a four-hitter, lifting the Kansas City Royals to a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
Davies (7-7) had scuffled over the past month or so, going 1-5 with a 5.34 ERA in six starts, in part because of high pitch counts.
The right-hander worked quickly and efficiently against the Mariners, getting ahead in the count with fastballs, then dropping in curveballs and change-ups to keep them off-balance.
Davies didn’t allow a hit until Jose Lopez lined a high fastball into right for a single leading off the fifth, and had Seattle swinging through off-speed pitches, striking out four of five batters in the second and third innings.
Davies worked out of a jam in the sixth, getting Yuniesky Bettancourt to ground into a double play with runners on the corners and one out, and ended the seventh with another double play.
Soria worked a perfect ninth for his 38th save in 41 chances, giving the Royals their fourth straight victory.
Seattle starter Carlos Silva’s struggles had gone back much further than Davies’.
The right-hander has won once since the opening month — June 28 at San Diego — and had gone 0-5 with an 8.40 ERA his previous nine outings.
Silva (4-15) had gotten himself in trouble by getting the ball up too much, never a good thing for a sinkerball specialist. He was relatively sharp against Kansas City after missing his last start due to back spasms, keeping the ball mostly down while allowing eight hits and two runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The Mariners didn’t give him much help, getting shut out for the 10th time this season for their fifth straight loss.
The Royals probably would have had more if not for more problems on the base paths.
Kansas City lost one run in the first inning when Ryan Shealy was called out on appeal for missing third base on Mark Teahen’s single. Another potential run was erased in the sixth inning, when slow-running Alex Gordon was thrown out at the plate by right-fielder Ichiro Suzuki trying to score from first on Alberto Callaspo’s double.
Former Mariner Jose Guillen was also thrown out at third base in the sixth after an error at first base.
Unlike some of its previous baserunning blunders this season, Kansas City was able to work past the mistakes.
Teahen got the RBI he missed out on earlier with a run-scoring single up the middle — Guillen made sure he touched the base rounding third — and Mike Aviles made it 4-0 with a chopper off Sean Green that bounced off the plate in the seventh.
Notes: Seattle’s Raul Ibanez was 0-for-3, ending his streak of reaching base safely at 32 games. … Kansas City CF David DeJesus had his errorless streak end at 127 games when he overthrew a ball into the infield in the sixth inning. .
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