Mark Buehrle pitched into the seventh inning, Juan Francisco and Colby Rasmus each went deep and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3 Thursday night to avoid a series sweep.
Francisco and Rasmus each drove in a pair of runs for Toronto, as did Anthony Gose, who was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo to start in place of injured outfielder Melky Cabrera.
Buehrle (5-1) worked through plenty of trouble to last 6 2-3 innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits and a pair of walks. It was a solid bounce-back performance after the left-hander was hammered for seven runs last Friday night against Boston.
Aaron Loup pitched 2 1-3 shutout innings for his third career save.
The Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie (2-2) left the game trailing 4-3 after six innings.
