Bruce Chen was once again up to task for the Kansas City Royals who defeated the Seattle Mariners 5-1 tonight in a rain shortened game that was called in the middle of the eighth innings. Both pitchers actually went the distance, Chen tossing eight innings and giving up just one run on six hits. Seattle's run was actually unearned as they scored in the top of the eighth on an Adam Kennedy sacrifice fly, scoring Chone Figgins. Figgins had doubled and advanced to third when Kila Ka`aihue missed a routine catch at first on a groundball by Milton Bradley.
Doug Fister pitched seven innings for Seattle giving up five runs on eight hits, while falling to 0-3. Chen, who picked up the win moved to 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA thus far.
Kansas City jumped on the board with three runs in bottom of the third, as Alex Gordon doubled to score both Alcides Escobar and Melky Cabrera. Gordon, who leads the American League with seven doubles, came around to score on a single by Billy Butler.
Wilson Betemit added a run in the fourth, with a solo home run inside the left field foul pole to make it 4-0. The wind was blowing out to left all night, thought Betemit was the only one to take advantage of the conditions. Betemit also hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to score Ka`aihue to make the score 5-0 at that juncture.
Cabrera had two hits for Kansas City, while Gordon and Betemit each had two RBI to go with a hit.
Kansas City improves to 8-4 and is now tied atop the American League Central Division standings with Cleveland, while Seattle fell to 4-9. Luke Hochevar (1-1 5.30 ERA) will be facing the Mariners' Erik Bedard (0-2 9.00 ERA) tomorrow evening at 7:10 from The K.