Kansas City rode a strong start from Seth Lugo, stretching the hottest streak in baseball to nine.
The Kansas City Royals keep finding new ways to win.
Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, they beat the Blue Jays 5-3 in the opener of a three-game set, and the final out came on a rare relay play that cut down Nathan Lukes at second base.
The victory pushed the winning streak to nine games, the club's longest run since July 2017 according to the Associated Press, and the best active streak in the majors.
A team that spent most of the summer buried in the standings is suddenly playing its most complete baseball of the year.
Lugo Sets the Tone
Seth Lugo got the better of Max Scherzer on Tuesday.
Lugo worked five innings and allowed one run on six hits with five strikeouts, improving to 6-7 with a 4.61 ERA on the season.
Scherzer lasted five innings as well but walked five, and Kansas City drew nine walks in the game as a team.
The Royals grabbed a first-inning run when Carter Jensen scored on a double play, and after Toronto tied it on a Jesus Sanchez sacrifice fly, Salvador Perez put them back in front with a fifth-inning single that brought home Bobby Witt Jr.
Kansas City never trailed after that, adding two runs in the sixth, one of them scoring on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. throwing error, and another in the ninth on a John Rave single.
The Ending
Toronto made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth.
Lukes lined a two-run single to pull the Blue Jays within two, but he was thrown out at second on the play, with left fielder Isaac Collins firing to Bobby Witt Jr. and Witt's relay to Tyler Tolbert finishing the game.
Manager Matt Quatraro admitted afterward the finish surprised even him.
"I don't know if I've seen a game end that way on a relay and ball in the gap like that. But I'm glad it did end that way," Quatraro said, per the Kansas City Star.
The win moved the Royals to 59-74 on the season, and the streak has come from every direction, from Carlos Estevez's step forward in the bullpen to an offense that piled up 11 runs in the streak's eighth win against Detroit.
What Comes Next
Kansas City still sits fifth in the AL Central and eight games back of the final wild card spot, so the club is fighting to keep its postseason hopes alive one series at a time.
The Royals continue the set in Toronto on Wednesday and Thursday, with Randy Dobnak expected to start the middle game, before heading to Cleveland this weekend to face a Guardians team that has won six in a row.
The one worry from Tuesday came when Michael Massey exited in the fifth inning after hitting his head on the turf while making a throw, and his status is worth watching as the streak rolls on.
Runs like this are up in the air for when they will end, but the way Kansas City is winning suggests this group has figured something out late in the year.
