Greinke sparks Royals
SEATTLE – Zack Greinke pitched a five-hitter for his third career complete game, and the Kansas City Royals opened a seven-game road trip with a 5-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
Billy Butler and Miguel Olivo each hit their first homer of the season for Kansas City.
Greinke (3-0) joined teammate Brian Bannister with his third win, though his ERA climbed from 0.60 to 0.75. The right-hander was efficient, striking out four and inducing three double plays while facing only three batters more than the minimum.
Greinke threw 107 pitches and walked one, working at least eight innings for the second consecutive start. He shut down the New York Yankees in his previous outing.
Just one Seattle baserunner advanced past first base against Greinke, who retired 18 of his final 20 batters. He got some defensive help, as Mark Teahen made a leaping catch against the left-field wall on Yuniesky Betancourt’s drive to end the eighth inning.
Greinke got all the runs he needed in the second, thanks to a pair of long balls from an offense that entered the night with just five homers, fewest in the A.L.
Butler homered into the Kansas City bullpen leading off the second to extend his career-best hitting streak to 13 games. Former Mariner Jose Guillen followed with a double to deep right-center and two batters later Olivo, another former Seattle player, homered to left-center.
It was Olivo’s first homer since Sept. 12 with Florida.
The Royals added another run in the seventh as Seattle’s bullpen continued to struggle. Sean Green took over for starter Jarrod Washburn starting the seventh and allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Ryan Rowland-Smith took over and gave up a sacrifice fly to David DeJesus, but escaped the inning without further damage.
Kansas City scored again in the eighth off Roy Corcoran. Second baseman Jose Lopez dropped the transfer of a potential inning-ending double play, and Olivo and John Buck had consecutive singles for a run.
Seattle’s run came in the third when Ichiro Suzuki barely beat out a double-play attempt, allowing Brad Wilkerson to score from third base.