By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals could not slow down Kazuma Okamoto, who had four hits and two RBIs including a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, as the surging Toronto Blue Jays beat the Royals 4-3 at Kauffman Stadium.
Okamoto went 4-for-5 with a double and broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh with an RBI single, scoring George Springer. Toronto started the scoring in the first inning thanks to Nathan Lukes, who had three hits for Toronto, including an RBI single that made it 2-0, driving in Alejandro Kirk, after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scored the first run of the game from first base when Kirk reached on a two-out infield single and Josh Rojas committed a throwing error. In the bottom half of the inning the Royals tied the game on RBI singles from Jac Caglianone and Salvador Perez, scoring Carter Jensen and Bobby Witt Jr. respectively,
In the third inning, Okamoto broke the tie with an RBI double that scored Lukes after his one out single. In the bottom of the fourth inning Kansas City would tie the game 3-3 on a solo home run by John Rave. Seth Lugo allowed three runs and eight hits in five innings for Kansas City. Craig Kimbrel took the loss, falling to 1-3, giving up the go ahead hit to Okamoto, pitching one inning and giving up one hit with one run, unearned, striking out one and walking one.
At the plate, Perez was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Witt Jr was 1-for-4 with a double while Rave was 1-for-3 with a home run, RBI, and a walk.
Kansas City and Toronto wrap up their series tomorrow. Randy Dobnak (2-3, 2.65 ERA, 40Ks) starts for the Royals against Spencer Arrighetti (7-8, 4.82 ERA, 97Ks) for the Blue Jays. First pitch is at 1:10pm, pregame at 12:30pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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