TORONTO — The excitement and enthusiasm of the previous night didn’t simply fade away for the Kansas City Royals, but they were definitely brought back down to Earth a little bit by a motivated Toronto Blue Jays ball club on Friday night.
Royals veteran pitcher Zack Greinke, who won a Cy Young Award when some of his current teammates were still playing Little League, couldn’t duplicate the scoreless outing he put together in his previous start.
Greinke allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits in four innings. Greinke gave up a home run and struck out three in the 8-1 loss to the Blue Jays in front of an announced 26,422 in the second game of a four-game series at Rogers Centre.
The Royals (36-54) had won back-to-back games and five of six before the loss, which evened the series between the clubs at one game apiece.
Second baseman Nicky Lopez drove in the lone run for the Royals with a fifth-inning RBI single that scored Ryan O’Hearn.
Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah (10-4) allowed one run on four hits and struck out six.
The Royals recalled pitcher Carlos Hernández from Triple-A prior to the game. He came out of the bullpen and made his first appearance in the majors since May 19.
