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KANSAS CITY, Mo. Davin Joseph . -- Salvador Perez has gone from cold to hot in three games. Perez homered and drove in four runs and the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 10-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. Perezs two-run double off Sergio Santos in the Royals six-run eighth put the Royals ahead. Perezs four RBIs matched his career high. The Royals had scored only four runs in the eighth inning in their first 24 games. Perez, who has three consecutive multi-hit games, homered in the seventh with Alex Gordon aboard to trim Torontos lead to 5-4. He was mired in a 1-for-29 skid before breaking out with seven hits in the past three games. "I see a couple of sliders and a couple of split-finger then they made a mistake on a fastball a little inside and up and I hit it pretty good," Perez said. The Royals sent 10 men to the plate in the eighth, which also included Omar Infante driving in two runs after collecting six RBIs on Sunday. Nori Aoki and Jarrod Dyson added RBI singles. "Thats the motto in here, never give up and always play like were in it," Dyson said. "You just need to scratch one, scratch two and we gained momentum and just took off from there. It was all momentum. Salvador put us back in there. That was the game-changer right there. We kind of knew we were coming back after that." Aaron Crow (1-1), the third of four Royals pitchers, picked up the victory with a scoreless eighth inning and has not allowed an earned run while allowing only five hits in nine innings this season. Brett Cecil (0-2) took the loss, retiring only two of the five batters he faced. The Blue Jays bullpen gave up seven runs in two innings after starter Dustin McGowan left the game. "We just got hit tonight," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of his relievers. "We had an off day yesterday so they were fresh. We didnt help things out. We let guys take the extra base by missing the cutoff man. Youre not going to win that way. Weve proved that we can play good defence." Jose Bautista homered for the Blue Jays off Royals left-hander Jason Vargas and has reached base in all 26 games. Melky Cabrera extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a double and triple, and drove in two Toronto runs. He tops the majors with 41 hits. Cabreras triple in the fifth scored Jose Reyes, who had doubled. Cabrera scored on Vargas wild pitch, putting the Blue Jays up 3-2. McGowan, who has missed three seasons with injuries, pitched into the seventh inning, holding the Royals to three hits and three runs, two earned. "Im really encouraged," McGowan said. "I went deep into the game. Thats all Ive been wanting to do. Sometimes the results are overshadowed by the innings youve pitched. But good things happen when you get deep in games." The Royals took advantage of two walks and a wild pitch, plus a throwing error on catcher Dioner Navarro to score two runs in the second inning. The Royals won a challenge review in the second, taking away a RBI infield single from Chris Getz. The Royals have scored 19 runs in winning the past two games. "Its going to click; we know that," Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer said of the offence. "Were confident in our group. Weve been getting some timely hits. Its a great thing about this offence. It could be a different guy every day that steps up and has a big night. Salvy obviously had that night tonight." NOTES: Royals LHP Bruce Chen received a shot for a bulging disc in his lower back and will miss a start. Chen will attempt to a throw a side session Thursday and if that goes well would start Saturday against Detroit. ... Getz had his contract purchased from Triple-A Buffalo, where he hit .309 in 18 games. The Jays optioned rookie IF Ryan Goins, who was hitting .150 with two extra-base hits in 60 at-bats, to Buffalo. ... The start of the game was delayed 27 minutes by rain. ... The Royals scored a season-high 10 runs and are 13-0 when scoring four or more runs. Mo Alexander Jersey . The 25-year-old rookie forward scored the winner on his first career shootout attempt as the Philadelphia Flyers overcame an early deficit to earn a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Jack Youngblood Jersey . -- Peyton Manning will have all of his wide receivers available for the first time in a month when the Denver Broncos begin their playoff run Jan.NASHVILLE -- The Nashville Predators were happy to be back home, even if it was for just one game. Rookie Marek Mazanec made 39 saves for his first NHL victory and the Predators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 7-2 Saturday night. Craig Smith scored a goal and added two assists for the Predators. The three-point game equaled the Madison, Wis. natives career high. Matt Cullen, Nick Spaling, Patric Hornqvist, Viktor Stalberg, Mike Fisher and Shea Weber also scored for Nashville, which ended a four-game losing streak. Patrick Kane and Brandon Pirri had the goals for Chicago, which had its four-game winning streak snapped. Making his second start in as many days, Mazanec stopped seven shots in the first, 17 in the second, and 15 in the third. "Its awesome," Mazanec said. "I am really happy. We played a really good game." The 22-year-old Czech is playing his first season in North America. Nashville played its first home game since Oct. 26, having just returned from a seven-game road trip that spanned 17 days. They head back out on the road for games in Detroit and Toronto next week. "Good response by our guys today," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We looked at this game as the end of road trip, not the first home game really because of the quick turnover and obviously playing the Stanley Cup champions." Cullen scored the games first goal at 7:28 of the opening period. From the slot, Smiths slap shot was stopped by Chicago goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. The rebound fell to the right of the net, and a diving Cullen poked the rebound in for his third goal of the season. Less than a minute later, Spaling doubled the Nashville lead when his wrist shot from the right faceoff dot slipped just underneath the crossbar at 8:25. Later in the first, Khabibulin left thhe game with an injury after making stops on shots from Weber and Hornqvist. E.J. Gaines. Corey Crawford replaced Khabibulin at 15:33. Following the game, the Blackhawks said that Khabibulin had a lower-body injury, but had no further update. "We got outworked," Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. "We didnt do the things we needed to. We didnt win our battles, especially in the right areas we needed to win them in." Hornqvists sixth goal of the season came at 9:02 of the second to give Nashville a 3-0 lead. With Nashville on a power play, Roman Josis slap shot from just above the left faceoff circle was tipped by Hornqvist in front and beat Crawford on the short side. Smith and Kane traded goals late in the second, with Smith connecting at 18:18 and Kane answering 26 seconds later. "We just stayed positive and erased the last couple of games," Smith said. "We just kind of refreshed for this game. Its also nice to be home. Its a good feeling." Pirri briefly cut the Nashville lead to 4-2 at 6:14 of the third, but Stalberg, the former Blackhawk, struck back at 6:29. Fisher added his at 12:19. "It was a free night for them offensively, we were very gracious," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We know what it takes and we know theyre going to be desperate." Weber scored on the power play at 14:07. His assist earlier in the game on Hornqvists goal was his 300th career NHL point. The seven goals were a season high for Nashville. Notes: Mazanec became just the eighth goaltender in Nashville franchise history to record a victory. ... Nashville C Filip Forsberg missed the game with an upper-body injury. He is listed day to day. ... Kane has at least one point in his past six games. ... Chicago RW Marian Hossa missed the game with a lower-body injury. ' ' ' |
