Vernon Wells hits solo homer and gets 3 hits to help Blue Jays beat Royals 4-3

Vernon Wells homers, Blue Jays beat Royals 4-3

TORONTO — Vernon Wells homered, John Buck drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 Tuesday night.

Wells went 3 for 4 with two doubles and scored twice, raising his average to .364.

Shawn Camp (1-0) pitched 1 2-3 innings of relief for the victory as Toronto won its ninth consecutive home series against the Royals. Kansas City has lost four of five overall.

Jason Frasor worked the eighth and Kevin Gregg finished for his fourth save before a crowd of only 10,565.

Adam Lind’s sacrifice fly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead after one but the Royals answered with two in the second. Jason Kendall extended his hitting streak to 13 games with an RBI single and Mitch Maier hit a sacrifice fly.

The Royals took a 3-1 lead with an unearned run in the third. Leadoff hitter Willie Bloomquist went to second on a fielding error by third baseman Jose Bautista and scored two outs later on Alberto Callaspo’s RBI double.

Wells cut it to 3-2 in the fourth with a one-out homer off the facing of the third deck in left, his seventh.

Toronto chased Kyle Davies (1-1) with a two-run seventh. Wells led off with a double to left and Lyle Overbay followed with a double to center that landed on the warning track, just beyond the reach of Rick Ankiel.

Josh Rupe came on for Davies after Bautista and Buck each hit an infield single, making it 4-3. Buck’s hit, a slow grounder down the third base line, snapped an 0-for-15 slump.

Travis Snider singled off Rupe to load the bases for Mike McCoy, who struck out looking, and the Royals escaped further damage when Fred Lewis grounded into a 5-2-3 double play.

Davies allowed four runs and six hits in six-plus innings. He walked two and struck out four.

Blue Jays left-hander Dana Eveland gave up three runs, two earned, and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.

NOTES: A moment of silence was held before the game in honor of Rockies president Keli McGregor, who died Tuesday. … Royals OF Scott Podsednik, who was leading the AL with a .457 batting average, was due to rejoin the team after missing Monday’s game because of a family emergency, but arrived too late to start. … Blue Jays 3B Edwin Encarnacion (sore right arm) missed his sixth straight game.