Blue Jays fall short of series sweep as Royals bust scoreless inning slump

Mike Matheny spent about 20 minutes in the dugout before his Kansas City Royals took the field against the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday and tried to put what has been a miserable 20-game stretch into perspective.

"There's some things we can get better at," Matheny said of the 5-15 rut, "and it's a long list."

They took care of a couple of them in their series finale against Toronto.

MJ Melendez and Emmanuel Rivera drove in two runs apiece. Carlos Santana went 4 for 4 and reached base five times during his eighth career four-hit game. And lumbering catcher Salvador Perez had his first triple in five years.

"I mean, it's helpful when you start talking about hitter's counts instead of pitcher's counts," Matheny said afterward. "We have been on the other side of that, where you have to go to the bullpen early and have to kind of navigate things."

Brady Singer allowed home runs to Raimel Tapia and Zack Collins but only allowed one other run in five tough innings. He improved to 3-1 in his five starts while the rest of the Kansas City rotation is 3-25 in 50 combined starts.

"I felt like I battled," Singer said. "Gave the team a chance to win."

The third Splash Brother: Raimel Tapia