After stopping a losing skid in the second game of this weekend's series the Kansas City Royals will try to put a win streak together when they finish up a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Kauffman Stadium.
Arizona handed Kansas City its third consecutive loss on Friday with a 6-4 victory on the strength of a three-RBI game from Miguel Montero.
On Saturday the outcome was much different as the Royals jumped out early and often and held on despite a late charge from Arizona to capture a 7-3 victory.
The Royals offense pounded Arizona starter Ian Kennedy for six runs on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings and tacked on another run in the sixth to take a 7-0 lead into the seventh inning.
"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."
The Diamondbacks would respond with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth but didn't have enough to overcome the early deficit.
Bruce Chen worked 6 1/3 effective innings in which he allowed two runs on eight hits to earn the win for Kansas City, with the bullpen finishing off the game by allowing just one run on three hits over the final 2 2/3 innings.
Billy Butler launched a three-run home run, his eighth of the season, in the third inning and Mike Moustakas, Brayan Pena and Alcides Escobar each had multi-hit games for the Royals.
Paul Goldschmidt went 3-for-4 and scored a run while Robin Roberts, Willie Bloomquist and Jason Kubel all had RBI in the loss for Arizona, which had won consecutive games for the first time since the end of April entering play.
Left-hander Everett Teaford was originally scheduled to make the start for Kansas City this afternoon, but after being placed on the DL due to a strained lower abdominal muscle on Saturday the Royals will turn to Nathan Adcock.
In his two seasons in the majors Adcock has made only three starts and had yet to make one this season.
This season Adcock has an 0-1 record with a 2.51 ERA in four relief appearances, the longest being a five-inning outing in which he allowed one run on three hits in a 4-3 loss to Baltimore earlier this week.
The right-hander has not made a start since allowing seven runs over 2 2/3 innings in a 12-7 loss to Texas in May of the 2011 season.
Adcock has never pitched against Arizona and has a 3.86 ERA in just two appearances in interleague play.
On the opposite side Arizona will send 25-year-old Wade Miley to the mound.
Miley scattered seven starts over the 2011 season but has been a fixture in the Diamondbacks pitching staff this season and has become a solid starter in the rotation.
Through eight appearances, five of which were starts, Miley is 4-1 with a 2.52 ERA that is the lowest among Arizona pitchers who have made at least four starts this season.
Miley rebounded from his first loss of the season with a strong performance in his last time out. The right-hander pitched 6 2/3 innings while allowing one run on eight hits to pick up his fourth win of the season as Arizona downed the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 on Tuesday.
Miley has never made a start against a team from the American League.
Kansas City and Arizona are meeting in consecutive seasons for the second time in their team's histories. Last season the Diamondbacks swept the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
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