Blue Jays beat shorthanded Royals to claim the four-game series

TORONTO — Alejandro Kirk belted a two-run homer to left field in the eighth inning to push the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-2 win against the shorthanded Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Kirk's 11th round-tripper provided the Blue Jays (50-43) with their fifth win in six games after winning just once in 10 outings.

With fellow all-star Vladimir Guerrero on first base after a leadoff single to centre, Kirk smashed a 3-2 pitch off Royals reliever Wyatt Mills (0-1) in front of 36,681 fans at Rogers Centre.

Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano then finished off the Royals with a clean ninth inning for his 20th save.

The Blue Jays scored two unearned runs in the third inning to pull even. Santiago Espinal and Guerrero reached base with back-to-back one-out infield hits.

Espinal scored when Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. muffed Kirk's slow-rolling grounder. Guerrero took advantage of the error to move to third and scored on Bo Bichette's sacrifice fly to right field.

The Royals scored a run in each of the first two innings. Leadoff hitter Nicky Lopez singled to centre, advanced to second on Vinnie Pasquantino's one-out single and scored Edward Olivares' bloop single to centre.

Kansas City first baseman Nick Pratto led off the second inning with a blast to right field for his first career homer. Lopez, Pasquantino, Pratto and Witt were among six rookies in the Royals' starting lineup. They were without 10 regulars, including standouts Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi, who didn't make the trip to Toronto because of their COVID-19 unvaccinated status.

Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios threw 88 pitches in 6 ⅓ innings, striking out seven and allowing two runs on seven hits. Tim Mayza (3-0) was perfect in his 1 ⅔ innings of relief of Berrios.