Rays' bats quiet in 6-1 loss to Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Billy Butler homered and drove in four runs, Kyle Davies picked up his first victory in more than a month and the Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 Sunday to salvage a split of their four-game series.

Carl Crawford singled in B.J. Upton in the sixth, and Ron Mahay replaced Davies with no outs and runners on second and third. The left-hander struck out Carlos Pena, retired Willy Aybar on an infield popup and got pinch-hitter Jonny Gomes to fly out to left to end the inning.

Andy Sonnanstine (10-6) allowed five runs and eight hits in 6 2-3 innings for AL East-leading Tampa Bay, which began the day with a two-game lead over Boston. Sonnanstine has lost his last three starts, yielding 14 runs and 22 hits in 19 innings.

(Pictured: Andy Sonnanstine pitches during the first inning. AP photo. Click to enlarge.)

Comments

[gott]

with guys like Gross, Gomes, Reyes; with so many LOB by game; with de DELIBERATE deision by almost every one to swing instead of getting a BB; everybody playing like they worht more than they really do, well, like this, you don´t take a spot from the Yankees or Red Sox. Calendar has been our main support and best player right now.

[dick]

Not much to say as evidenced by the number of comments. Everything that needs to be said here has been said and said and said and said by everyone for a long time. Now we can add Reyes into that group that need to go. I see where Glover is gone and that needed to be done. Now they need to bring up Ruggiano or complete a trade with someone for a lefty in the pen or utilize what they have right now (PRICE)..Yanks didn't hesitate with Chamberlain last year and he is decent right now. It's not like Price is a young kid out of high school that needs TLC--he completed college and can handle this level, same as Longoria proved to this organization after they thought he "wasn't ready"..