Royals Beat Dodgers 5-3, End 4-Game Skid
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CBSLA.com/AP) — Jeremy Guthrie pitched into the eighth inning, Jarrod Dyson drove in two runs off Zack Greinke and the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Monday night to end a four-game losing streak.
Guthrie (5-6) allowed two runs and seven hits while winning his third straight start. He was buoyed by an offense that had only scored eight runs total during its recent slide.
Dyson, the Royals' No. 9 hitter, went 3 for 3 and stole two bases. Salvador Perez hit a solo home run, and Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar -- two of the players acquired by the Royals in the trade that sent Greinke to Milwaukee in December 2010 -- drove in a run apiece.
Greg Holland served up a homer to Adrian Gonzalez in the ninth before earning his 22nd save.
Hanley Ramirez drove in the other two runs for the Dodgers, who are visiting Kansas City for the first time since they were swept in a three-game set in 2005.
In his third start against his former team, Greinke (9-4) was battered for a season-high five runs and 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings. He had allowed just two runs over 15 1-3 innings in his previous two starts against the Royals, one with the Brewers and the other with the Los Angeles Angels.
The Royals pounded Greinke almost from the start, Perez belting the first pitch of the second inning over the wall in left field for a 1-0 lead. Then with two outs, Escobar singled and went to second on a wild pitch before heading home when Dyson dumped a single into left field.
Dyson made it 3-0 in the fifth when he scored on Cain's single to right.
The Royals finally knocked Greinke from the game in the fifth, this time after Perez started the inning with a double. Greinke fought back to get two outs, but Escobar hit a triple into the right-field corner and Dyson tacked on another RBI single to make it 5-0.
That hit ended Greinke's night. As he departed the mound, fans showered him with a chorus of boos, clearly recalling how the right-hander once demanded to be traded from their team.
Meanwhile, those same fans were waiting to give Guthrie a standing ovation.
The right-hander faced the minimum number of hitters through four innings, needing just four pitches in the second and five in the fourth. Gonzalez and Matt Kemp, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games to improve on an already impressive month of June, finally hit consecutive singles to start the fifth, but Guthrie calmly wiggled out of that jam.
It wasn't until Miguel Rojas and Justin Turner hit singles and Ramirez one-hopped a double over the outfield wall to make it 5-2 in the eighth that Guthrie finally left the game.
Wade Davis finished the inning, and Holland cleaned up the ninth to preserve the win.
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