The Toronto Blue Jays began a three game road series with the Kansas City Royals last night at Kauffman Stadium.

The Jays were coming into Kansas City riding a three game series sweep of the Baltimore Orioles to begin their second half of the season.

The Jays sent left-hander Brett Cecil to the mound to pitch against the Royals Kyle Davies.

Cecil pitched pretty well for the team, although a rough seventh inning ended up costing him a win as he walked away with a no-decision in the contest, having pitched six and a third innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits, walking three and striking out one.

After allowing a run in the bottom of the second inning it looked as if Cecil would walk away victorious in the game as he pitched well into the seventh inning and was spotted a lead after Yunel Escobar hammered a 2-2 pitch into the stands for a two run home run, scoring Edwin Encarnacion and John Buck cashed in Aaron Hill on an RBI single against his former team in the top of the seventh inning.

However, Cecil unraveled in the bottom half of the inning allowing a lead-off walk to Mike Aviles, which was followed by a Willie Bloomquist double and an RBI groundout from Yuniesky Betancourt. With Scott Downs entering the game for Toronto trying to hold the lead Jason Kendall would score Bloomquist on an infield single, tying the ball game.

After some solid pitching from the Jays bullpen combination of Jason Frasor (1IP, 1K) & Shawn Camp (1IP, 1K) the game would enter extra innings and the Jays would take advantage of the Royals Kyle Farnsworth.

Fred Lewis would lead-off the inning with a single and Escobar would take a high pitch on the wrist while trying to sacrifice bunt. It was a scary moment for Jays fans watching their new shortstop quivering in pain after the hit by pitch. Escobar would be fine and trot to first base. With the two runners on Jose Bautista would single to right field scoring Lewis, giving Toronto the lead before Farnsworth would get out of the inning.

There was speculation that manager Cito Gaston would not use Kevin Gregg in the closer’s role in the game, after the two had words with each other in Baltimore. Gaston pulled Gregg out of a late inning situation over the weekend in favour of Camp which caused an angered Gregg to verbally duke it out with his manager. The two supposedly resolved their problems prior to game time and Gregg would enter for the save.

Gregg looked terrible in the inning, allowing a lead off triple to Scott Podsednik, who scored on a Kendall sacrifice fly. After getting David DeJesus to ground out he would allow a single to Billy Butler, walk Jose Guillen on four pitches and than give up the game winning run to Alberto Callaspo as the Royals would steal one from the Jays with a 5-4 victory.

Kevin Gregg did not pitch well again last night for Toronto.

The loss was Gregg’s fourth of the season as the big right-hander has pitched poorly in his last two appearances.

Offensively, the Jays recorded thirteen hits overall, with every hitter in their batting order recording a hit. Lewis, Escobar, Bautista & Lyle Overbay all had multi-hit games for Toronto.

The loss was a tough one to swallow for Toronto, who seemed to have plenty of momentum on their side coming into Kauffman Stadium, a ball park the Jays have had their problems winning at.

With the loss the Jays record drops to 47-46 on the season, twelve games behind the American League East leading New York Yankees.

The series continues tonight in Kansas City with the Jays Jesse Litsch (0-4, 6.54ERA) squaring off against the Royals Anthony Lerew (1-3, 7.56ERA).

The game is scheduled to begin at 8:10pm EST.

In other Jays news the team designated utility infielder Nick Green for assignment over the weekend to make roster space available for the return of Shaun Marcum, who started in Baltimore on Sunday. Green had only appeared at the plate 14 times for Toronto hitting .154.

The addition of a pitcher in place of a bench player allows the Jays to limit the innings pitched by their young starting staff. Brandon Morrow will be skipped over in his next start as the Jays use a legitimate six man rotation for the time being.

On the trade wire there have been reports that the Boston Red Sox & New York Yankees are both very interested in the Jays Scott Downs. Although only speculation at the current time neither team’s interest comes as a big surprise as both teams require bullpen help and Downs is one of the best in the business. Downs is a free agent at the end of the season and the Jays may require a lot in return for him as he projects to be a Type A player, which means the Jays could possible gain two compensation picks if the Jays offer Downs arbitration, he declines and they lose him to free agency. A similar scenario occurred in the off-season with former shortstop Marco Scutaro, whom the Jays received two compensatory draft picks for this past June in the Entry Draft after losing him to Boston.

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