KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Alcides Escobar is a maestro with his glove, making the kinds difficult of plays at shortstop that has helped to make the Kansas City Royals one of the best defensive teams in baseball. On Wednesday night, Escobar showed he can swing the bat a bit, too. His two-run double in the seventh inning proved to be the difference in a tense 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. "Hes been very consistent," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Hes always been an important part of our club because of his defence. He saves runs in the field. But when you add offence to that, he becomes a very special player." Eric Hosmer drove in the other two runs for the Royals, whose bullpen blew a 2-0 lead for young starter Yordano Ventura before holding on to beat Toronto with a late rally for the second straight night. Kansas City won the series opener 10-7 behind a six-run eighth inning. Kelvin Herrera (1-1) stranded runners on second and third in the seventh, and Wade Davis struck out Jose Reyes to leave the bases loaded in the eighth. Greg Holland worked around a double in the ninth for his seventh save in seven tries. "You play 162 games. Youre going to see a lot of things happen," Holland said. "The mark of a good bullpen is when you have guys pick each other up when they get in jams." Drew Hutchison (1-2) allowed all four runs on five hits in seven innings for Toronto. The 23-year-old right-hander, who missed last season after Tommy John surgery, kept the Royals mostly off balance until Escobar guided his double down the left-field line with two outs in the seventh. Jimmy Paredes and Salvy Perez scored easily to give Kansas City the lead. "I got ahead of him. I went right at him. I thought I made a good pitch," Hutchison said. "Thats a situation where I expect myself to thrive and get the job done, but I didnt." The Royals improved to 14-0 when scoring at least four runs -- they remain 0-12 falling short of that mark. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in their last seven games. Toronto also lost outfielder Melky Cabrera in the sixth inning when he was hit in the left shin by a pitch from Danny Duffy. Cabrera needed to be helped off the field, though X-rays taken at the ballpark came back negative and a team spokesman said he was day to day. The Royals manufactured a 1-0 lead through driving rain in the first inning with a double by Nori Aoki, a sacrifice bunt and Hosmers sacrifice fly. They tacked on another run in the fourth when Hosmer followed a double by Omar Infante with one of his own. As long as Ventura was pitching, it seemed that would be enough. The Blue Jays struggled to catch up to the 22-year-olds triple-digit fastball, managing just two hits over five innings. But they were more successful at avoiding stuff off the plate, driving up his pitch count and forcing him from the game after five innings and 92 pitches. "It was cold out there," Ventura said through a translator, fellow starter Jeremy Guthrie. "Naturally, it was a little more difficult to command." Thats when Royals manager Ned Yost called on Duffy, who hit Cabrera in the left shin with his first pitch. Cabrera dropped to the grass in foul territory and stayed there several minutes, eventually getting helped through the dugout and to the clubhouse by the Blue Jays trainers. Duffy proceeded to walk Jose Bautista on five pitches and was yanked for Aaron Crow, who gave up singles to Edwin Encarnacion and Juan Francisco that tied the game 2-all. Crow finally escaped the inning, and the Royals bullpen held Toronto down the rest of the way. "Its frustrating, but at the end of the day I need to do a better job to give us a chance to win after we came back and scored two runs," Hutchison said. "I was in complete control going into the seventh. It comes down to that its on me and I need to get the job done." NOTES: Toronto left 11 runners on base. ... Bautista finished with 30 walks in April, matching Fred McGriffs club record for a single month. ... Blue Jays INF Brett Lawrie (sore back) was held out of the lineup. Manager John Gibbons called him day to day. ... RHP Jeremy Guthrie starts the series finale Thursday night for Kansas City. LHP Mark Buehrle starts for Toronto. Brad Daugherty Jersey . Seager had another triple, a home run and a double in a rare feat not seen in more than 40 years, leading Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners past the New York Yankees 10-2. "It was a weird play," Seager said of the triple in the fourth inning. Kyle Korver Jersey . The 31-year-old, a two-time CFL lineman of the year, was among the most coveted free agents on the market. The Windsor, Ont., native will be especially important to a team that has lost veteran quarterback Anthony Calvillo to retirement and is expected to go with the less experienced Troy Smith and Tanner Marsh this season. http://www.cheapcavaliersjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=cheap-shaquille-oneal-jersey . 5 Trade Deadline is drawing closer and teams will be deciding on whether to buy or sell. LeBron James Jersey . He scored two highlight-reel goals in a three-minute span -- the second on a sideways bicycle kick in the 78th minute -- to give the Whitecaps a 2-2 draw with the Portland Timbers before a crowd of 20,303 at B. Channing Frye Jersey . Kevin Martin and Kevin Love paced the Timberwolves like they do so often. Martin had 27 points with some key baskets down the stretch, Love had his usual double-double, and the Timberwolves snapped a three-game losing streak with a 112-106 victory Saturday night over the suddenly slipping Dallas Mavericks.Regina, SK - The first week of the 2014 CFL regular season draws to a close tonight when the defending Grey Cup Champion Saskatchewan Roughriders take the field against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium. Watch the action live on TSN and TSN GO at 7pm et/4pm pt. This is a replay of the 101st Grey Cup from November, when the Roughriders delivered a convincing 45-23 thrashing of Hamilton in front of nearly 45,000 fans. The Riders, led by head coach Corey Chamblin, would like nothing more than to get off to the same type of start that they had a year ago when they rattled off five straight victories and captured eight of the first nine outings overall. The team did stumble slightly down the stretch with back-to-back defeats to close out the regular season and suffered a four-game slide during the month of September, but the club proved to be resilient, finishing 11-7 overall, but taking home the Grey Cup when all was said and done. The third-leading passer in terms of yards last season with 4,154, Darian Durant is back under center for Saskatchewan as it begins the quest for back- to-back titles, something that has happened only once in the last 15 years. Durant, who has been with the Riders for his entire nine-year CFL career, tossed a personal best 31 touchdowns and finished with an efficiency rating of 95.7. In 2013, Durant had a trio of top-notch receivers who he relied heavily on, but one of those, Weston Dressler has since signed with the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL, leaving Chris Getzlaf and Taj Smith to carry more of the load this time around. All three posted at least 1,000 yards through the air, with Dressler leading the way with nine touchdowns. However, Getzlaf and Smith both landed in the end zone seven times and the former averaged a hefty 16.6 yards per catch. Another major change for the Riders is the departure of running back Kory Sheets, the most valuable player of the Grey Cup, as he signed with the NFLs Oakland Raiders. Sheets was second in the league with 1,598 yards and tied for the lead with 12 rushing scores, which means theres a huge void to be filled in the backfield for the club. A couple of newcomers, Keith Toston and Anthony Allen will be tasked with producing on the ground moving forward. Saskatchewan has to be pleased with the fact that they owned the toughest scoring defense in the CFL a year ago, allowing only 22.1 ppg, but that wont be easy to duplicaate after losing Alex Hall.dddddddddddd. The defensive lineman placed second in the league with 16 sacks, but like many successful CFL performers, he too has latched on with an NFL squad (the Carolina Panthers) for the time being. On other side, the Tiger-Cats were the opposite of Saskatchewan through the first month of last season, winning just a single game in five tries. But the group did finish strong with four wins in five opportunities before, putting up a 10-8 mark, before defeating Montreal and Toronto in the playoffs. Kent Austin, the head coach, general manager and vice president of football operations for Hamilton, does have a major issue to clear up this time around with respect to his quarterback. Last year he watched Henry Burris tear up defenses for a league-best 4,927 yards, but this time around he will have to find a leader in either Zach Collaros, Dan LeFevour or Jeremiah Masoli. Collaros has the most experience of the three after spending a couple of years with Toronto, but he is still a major work in progress. LeFevour finished with almost as many rushing yards (317) as passing (394) with the Cats last year while Masoli attempted a grand total of just two passes for the program in 2013. At least for this week, it doesnt help that receiver Andy Fantuz is on the injured list, because he was one of the top pass catchers in the game with 65 grabs for 896 yards. That leaves Bakari Grant as the primary focus down the field after he posted 69 receptions for 947 yards, but a mere two touchdowns a year ago. Running back C.J. Gable is capable of adding another dimension to the offense, having gained 782 yards and scored seven times on 130 carries in his first CFL campaign, but the squad will have to be careful not to run him into the ground too early. From a defensive perspective, there is plenty of work to be done for the Tiger-Cats after they finished with a minus-13 in the turnover department. The squad logged just 14 interceptions, second-fewest behind only a hapless Winnipeg group, which they turned into a league-low 142 return yards. Hamilton was also last in the CFL in sacks with just 35. Stretching back to 1961 and focusing only on games that took place during the regular season, Saskatchewan holds a slight advantage in the series with the Cats at 42-38-4. The Riders have taken four of the last five and a startling 17 of the last 20 matchups with Hamilton. 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