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Sports

Chen strong on mound, Royals down Diamondbacks

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Kansas City, MO – Billy Butler smacked a two-run homer and drove in three while Mike Moustakas belted a solo shot and scored three runs as the Kansas City Royals downed the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-3, in the middle test of a three-game interleague series.

Bruce Chen (3-4) surrendered two runs on eight hits and two walks while fanning four in 6 1/3 innings for the Royals, who snapped a three-game losing skid.

"Our offense did a real good job today. They gave us seven runs and we played good. We needed this win at home," Chen said.

Kansas City put across at least a run in between each of the second and sixth innings and jumped out to a 7-0 advantage.

Ian Kennedy (3-4) was charged with six runs on eight hits and a walk in 4 1/3 frames for Arizona, which had won three of its last four coming in.

"It was terrible," Kennedy said of his outing. "I was falling behind guys. I wasn't throwing strikes and they did what they needed to do."

Kennedy, who finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting a year ago, is 0-4 with a 5.92 earned run average in his last four starts after going 9-0 with a 2.34 ERA over his prior 12 outings.

The Royals surged ahead early with a run in the second frame, two in the third one in the fourth, a pair in the fifth and another in the sixth.

Chris Getz slapped an RBI single up the middle in the second and Butler belted a two-run shot over the wall in left-center in the third.

Moustakas launched a solo homer to right field in the fourth and a run-scoring single by Eric Hosmer and a sac fly from Butler put the Royals ahead 6-0 after five. Jarrod Dyson added a sac fly in the sixth.

The Diamondbacks finally broke through in the seventh with a pair of runs. Ryan Roberts lined an RBI double to left and Willie Bloomquist's run-scoring single through the hole on the right side cut the deficit to 7-2.

Jason Kubel lifted a sac fly in the eighth inning.

Game Notes

Arizona is 12-8 all-time against Kansas City and fell to 10-4 at Kauffman Stadium...Arizona was 4-for-15 with runners in scoring position while Kansas City was 3-for-7.