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  Tuesday, Aug. 22 7:05pm ET
Blue Jays have wild card on mind
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

TORONTO (AP) -- With six weeks to go, and five teams vying for the AL wild card, Brad Fullmer realizes every game is important.

Brad Fullmer
Brad Fullmer belted a three-run homer in the eighth Tuesday night to lift Toronto past Kansas City.

Fullmer hit a three-run homer and Tony Batista followed with his 36th home run as the Toronto Blue Jays rallied in the eighth inning to defeat the Kansas City Royals 7-5 Tuesday night.

The Blue Jays are 2½ games behind Cleveland and Boston in the wild-card race, with Oakland a half-game out.

"Hopefully we get some help, but we've just got to win," Fullmer said. "That's the bottom line."

Toronto, carried by its offense all season, has had four straight solid outings from its veteran starters. Steve Trachsel gave up three runs -- one earned -- in six innings against Kansas City.

Blue Jays starters have given up only three earned runs over the last 28 2/3 innings.

"It's not easy to win games when you have to score a ton of runs," Fullmer said. "We've done that, but it's always nice to get a quality outing from your starter."

Royals starter Dan Reichert took a 5-3 lead into the eighth. He was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk to David Martinez and giving up a single to Carlos Delgado.

Jose Santiago (6-4) relieved and gave up Fullmer's 26th homer. Batista then connected for an insurance run.

"We were a couple of pitches away from winning, but Santiago got some pitches up in the zone, and they hit them out of the park," Kansas City's Jermaine Dye said.

Kelvim Escobar (8-13) got two outs for the win. Billy Koch pitched a perfect ninth for his 29th save.

"This was a must win for us," Koch said. "I was watching the scoreboard. There's nothing else for us to do out there."

Reichert, who hasn't lost since July 15, allowed five runs -- three earned -- on eight hits in seven-plus innings.

"It was a little easier facing Santiago's straight fastball after seeing Reichert's heavy sinker," Fullmer said. "I'm not going to say it was a relief facing Santiago, but Reichert threw a great game."

Johnny Damon drew a leadoff walk from Mark Guthrie in the seventh and stole second. Mike Sweeney's RBI single put the Royals ahead 4-3.

The Royals took advantage of two errors to score three unearned runs. Delgado made a wild throw from first base that gave Kansas City a run in the eighth.

After shortstop Alex Gonzalez botched a ground ball with two outs in the Royals first, Joe Randa hit a two-run double. Dye's RBI single gave Kansas City a 3-0 lead in the third.

Toronto came back in the fourth on Delgado's RBI single and Fullmer's run-scoring grounder.

The Blue Jays tied it 3-3 in the fifth when Sweeney, the first baseman, failed to catch Reichert's throw for an error, allowing Jose Cruz Jr. to score.

Game notes
Martinez has hit in 13 straight games since being acquired from Texas on Aug. 5. ... Damon went 0-for-4. He began the night as the top hitter in the majors since the All-Star break, batting .449 (75-for-167) in 38 games.
 


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