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. Cheap Diamondbacks Jerseys Authentic . Rooneys latest piece of football genius lost in the furore which now stalks David Moyes, and the man who gave the Manchester United striker his start as a 16-year old at Goodison Park back in 2002. Wholesale Diamondbacks Jerseys . 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Liriano was getting hooked up to an IV to deal with flu-like symptoms when the Pittsburgh Pirates bullpen stepped up big-time in a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday that snapped a four-game losing streak. Waiting to be taken out in the third inning, the lefty was bent over, hands on his knees. "I just feel dizzy, weak and dizzy," Liriano said after the game. "I dont know. I just feel sick." Gaby Sanchez had two RBIs in a four-run fourth inning and five relievers combined to work seven strong innings, with key outs from rookie Stolmy Pimentel and Jared Hughes against Yadier Molina. "Pimentel pitched as big an inning as weve had pitched for us all year in the third," manager Clint Hurdle said. "You had 40-plus on their feet, a 3-2 count on Molina, on jersey day. "To get the swing and miss and then carry it deeper, a big-time push from Stolmy." Matt Holliday had an RBI double for the Cardinals, who have mustered five runs in their last six games. They got three hits and a run after Liriano left and got beat by an over-shifted defence, too, when Matt Adams lined out to shortstop Jordy Mercer stationed right behind the second-base bag with a man on third in the seventh. "Were just not clicking," said leadoff man Matt Carpenter, who was 0 for 3 with two walks. "Were having good at-bats, guys are competing, but stuff just isnt falling in for us. "Its just the way its going right now." Molina was a bust on his jersey giveaway day, striking out with the bases loaded to end the third against Pimentel (2-0) and popping out with runners on second and third to end the fifth against Hughes. He entered batting .431 during a 15-game hitting streak. Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata each added an RBI off Tyler Lyons (0-2) in the fourth, with the first four runners reaching safely after the lefty opened with three perfect innings.dddddddddddd Tabata totalled three hits and is a career .345 hitter at Busch Stadium. "He continues to find a way to find hits in this ballpark," Hurdle said. "Hes really been a solid offensive ballplayer for us here." The Pirates have scored seven runs while Liriano was in the game in his six starts. They jumped into gear the inning after the lefty was taken out en route to just their third win in their last 10 games. "That one inning obviously changes the whole day," Lyons said. "The one inning, thats a killer." Hurdle said there were no health concerns at the start of the game and noted, "the first two innings were pretty crisp and clean." "It just snowballed on him," the manager added. Pittsburgh also has struggled offensively, totalling four runs during its losing streak, and got shut out 1-0 in the series opener Friday. "We got some key hits that we havent been getting," Gaby Sanchez said. "We were finally able to put something together and get some runs across. It was good to get the lead and stay ahead." Liriano walked Lyons to start the third and was behind 3-0 against leadoff man Matt Carpenter before meeting with a trainer on the mound, and then departing. Tony Sanchez added a two-run single in the ninth off Eric Fornatoro after striking out his first three at-bats. NOTES: Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright (4-1, 1.46) is set to work the finale against Edinson Volquez (1-1, 1.93) after tweaking his right knee in his last start. ... Adams made an outstanding diving catch at 1B to rob Pimentel of an opposite-field line drive hit in the fifth. ... Jhonny Peralta hit his 300th career double off Justin Wilson in the seventh. ... Allen Craig singled in four trips and is 1 for 18 against the Pirates this year. 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