Ian Seymour struck out eight over six strong frames, Cedric Mullins clubbed a two-run homer among his two hits and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays capped a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with a 5-2 win Thursday night, their season-high eighth straight victory.
Chandler Simpson and Hunter Feduccia each had three hits for the American League East-leading Rays, who did all their scoring with two outs.
Seymour (5-1) — who pitched 6 2/3 hitless innings against the Royals in a bulk relief role June 25 — gave up Carter Jensen’s leadoff home run, two other hits and a walk Thursday for Tampa Bay, which won the final five meetings with Kansas City this season.
Isaac Collins added a seventh-inning homer for the Royals, who have lost seven of eight.
One night after his 20-game hitting streak came to an end, Jensen opened the bottom of the first by sending Seymour’s pitch 449 feet into the right field fountains.
However, the Rays took the lead in the second with three runs off Royals starter Stephen Kolek (4-3), who threw 42 of his 51 total pitches during what would be his final inning of the night.
Simpson reached on a one-out infield single, then advanced on a fielder’s choice. He scored on a double just off the glove of Royals right fielder Kameron Misner from Taylor Walls, who came home on a bloop hit by Richie Palacios. Feduccia’s RBI triple, which also glanced off Misner’s glove, made it 3-1.
In the third, recently acquired Randy Dobnak replaced Kolek, who gave up four hits with a walk while facing 11 batters for the game.
Dobnak was solid until the fifth, when Simpson laid down a successful two-out bunt single. He stole second and came home on Mullins’ drive over the right field wall.
Tampa Bay’s 22-year-old star Junior Caminero went 0-for-5, one night after becoming the youngest player in major league history to homer in six straight games.
Bryan Baker pitched a perfect ninth for his 22nd save.
Jensen had two of Kansas City’s five hits.
