BASEBALL: Rays ring up 8th straight win, beat stumbling Royals

Ian Seymour struck out eight batters over six innings as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Kansas City Royals, 5-2, on Thursday night to complete a three-game sweep and extend their season-high winning streak to eight games.

Cedric Mullins led the Rays' offense with a two-run home run and two hits, while Chandler Simpson and Hunter Feduccia each collected three hits. Tampa Bay, which leads the American League East, scored all five of its runs with two outs and won the final five meetings against Kansas City this season.

Seymour (5-1), who tossed 6 2/3 hitless innings against the Royals in a bulk relief appearance on June 25, allowed two runs on five hits while issuing one walk. He surrendered a leadoff home run to Carter Jensen in the first inning but settled down to earn his fifth victory of the season.

Kansas City grabbed an early 1-0 lead when Jensen launched Seymour's first-inning pitch 449 feet into the fountains beyond right field, one day after his 20-game hitting streak ended.

The Rays responded with three runs in the second inning against Royals starter Stephen Kolek (4-3). Simpson reached on an infield single and later scored on Taylor Walls' double. Richie Palacios followed with an RBI bloop single before Feduccia added an RBI triple to put Tampa Bay ahead 3-1.

Recently acquired Randy Dobnak relieved Kolek in the third inning after the Royals starter lasted just two innings, allowing three runs on four hits and one walk while throwing 51 pitches.

Tampa Bay added two more runs in the fifth. Simpson reached on a bunt single with two outs, stole second base, and scored on Mullins' two-run homer to right field, extending the lead to 5-1.

The Royals trimmed the deficit in the seventh when Isaac Collins hit a solo home run, but they could get no closer. Bryan Baker retired the side in order in the ninth inning to record his 22nd save.

Junior Caminero, the Rays' 22-year-old standout, went hitless in five at-bats after making history the previous night as the youngest player in Major League Baseball history to homer in six consecutive games.

Jensen finished with two of Kansas City's five hits as the Royals dropped their seventh game in the last eight. -Field Level Media/Reuters