Blue Jays even series with shutout against Kansas City Royals, 4-0

The Kansas City Royals were shut out Sunday afternoon in Toronto as the Blue Jays evened the four-game series at two games apiece, winning 4-0.

Mark Buehrle hit double digits in wins (10-1, 2.10), while Jeremy Guthrie (2-5, 4.00) once again was the victim of poor run support.

June started right where May left off  for the Royals: solid pitching and feeble hitting. Blame this one on Buehrle, if you will.

More from KC Royals News

• KC Royals Rumors: Is a monster move in the cards?
• KC Royals Free Agent Hunt: 3 Tampa Bay pitchers
• Grading the 2022 KC Royals: The $25 million man
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Expectations met
• KC Royals Winter Meetings Tracker: Day 3 update

The Royals sent only 34 batters to the plate, managing three doubles, three singles and a walk against a combined effort from Buehrle through eight innings and Aaron Loup in the ninth.

Even though Guthrie only gave up 2 runs on eight hits over seven innings, the Royals never really seemed in this game.
Toronto blasted two home runs, one by Dioner Navarro off Guthrie in the second to start the scoring, and a two-run shot by Edwin Encarnacion, his third of the series, off Aaron Crow.

In the series, the Royals (26-30) hit three home runs, but were out-slugged by the Jays (34-24) who hit five.

Guthrie received little notion of offensive help today, much like his game last Tuesday against the Houston Astros. Now covering his last three starts, Guthrie has thrown 20 innings, yielding 18 hits, four runs and only one long ball surrendered.

The offense in those innings has produced one run.

NOTABLES: Mike Moustakas was recalled from Omaha to replace the ailing Danny Valencia. Moustakas went 0-3 at the plate and lowered his season batting average to .148. Lorenzo Cain was the only Royals starter today with a batting average over .300. He went 0-4, lowering his average to .328. Alex Gordon (.276) and Eric Hosmer (.271) ended the game with the next highest averages.

The Royals ended the month of May with a losing record. Over the last five years, the Royals record in May has been 55-84, with only one winning May:
2014: 12-17
2013: 8-20
2012: 15-13
2011: 10-17
2010: 10-17

NEXT: “The Cardinals are coming, tra-la-tra-la.” (That’s for those of you old enough to remember when Harry Carry turned this phrase into a song and slogan trying to rally the Cardinals down the stretch in 1969.) Shelby Miller (6-4, 3.94)  takes the mound for the Red Birds against Danny Duffy (2-4, 3.57) for the Boys in Blue at Kauffman Stadium, Monday, 7:10 p.m. start.