Royals take the Jays

After Kyle Snyder's debacle Saturday, Sunday's game with Toronto became the rubber match of the three-game set and the Royals fought for a 6-5 win. D.J. Carrasco gave up 4 runs over the first 3 innings but the Royals tied it up as Berroa came through with his first homer in forever (OK, a while...) and newbie OF Chip Ambres came through with his first MLB RBI to knot it at 4. "Super" Joe McEwing gave KC the lead with possibly his biggest hit of the season and Emil Brown followed with an RBI single to make it a 6-4 game. Affeldt and Burgos held it down and MacDougal gave up a run but got the save for 15 on the season. Berroa and Brown and Ambres all had 2-hit games while DeJesus had a big 0-fer for a change, as did Donnie Murphy. Castillo was 0-1 but walked twice, so he at least got on base. It's always nice to take a series from an AL East team. They seem to send out that "flyover country" vibe about the Midwest and, of course, get a bunch of the SportsCenter/Baseball Tonight air time. KC needs all the good pub it can get these days as far as sports go until the Chiefs choke it off in November or December.

So Chicago comes to town fresh off a split with the BoSox and the Royals get a big divisional test. Game 1 is Zack Greinke vs. Freddy Garcia. Zack will have to be on the absolute top of his game Monday.