KANSAS CITY, Mo. Steven Matz held the Kansas City Royals without a hit in the sixth inning, and Jonathan Davis and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered to give the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-1 victory in the seven inning opener of their doubleheader on Saturday.
Matz (3-0) gave up only a few walks before Nicky Lopez’s blooper took off with one out in the sixth. Matz gave up Andrew Benintendi’s two-out double later in the inning for the only other blemish on an otherwise dominant performance.
The Blue Jays had to settle for a split. In the nightcap, the Royals followed veteran Ervin Santana’s start with four relief pitchers before Salvador Perez’s two-out, walk-off homer gave them a 3-2 victory.
As for the left-wing Matz, he struckout five batters on those two walks and two hits, while allowing Kansas City to hit only five balls out of the infield before making way for Rafael Dolis for the seventh inning.
“It’s nice to get into a groove early in the season, especially when you have a lineup like that,” said Matz, who struggled with injuries during his six seasons with the Mets. ‘It has been good. I just try to wind down each start, take a little bit off each start, and get a little better each time. That is the goal to move forward. “
Other than a shaky first, Mike Minor of the Royals adapted most of Matz’s pitch for pitch.
Minor (1-1) retired his first two batters before Guerrero and Randal Grichuk hit back-to-back singles and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. a two-run double boomed off the wall. Those were all runs until Davis hit his first homer of the year on the foul post in leftfield en route to the fifth and Guerrero tapped his second homer of the series on his way to the sixth.
“Some good defensive moves behind me,” said Minor. “I felt like the attack zone was a bit tight, so many of the fields I threw didn’t make any progress. I was chasing boys. And then I gave up the homeruns. “
Even if Matz didn’t allow a hit throughout the game, his excellent start would not have been an official no-hitter, as teams or pitchers must play at least nine innings to qualify. The decision to shorten the doubleheader games to seven innings each for the 2021 season means that Matz and the Blue Jays would have needed at least two extra innings to count.
The only no-hitter in Blue Jays history is Dave Stieb’s 3-0 win over the Indians on September 2, 1990.
“We got off to a good start today. Matz threw the ball well, ”said Royals manager Mike Matheny. He had a good late move – you could tell the boys didn’t see the late move. Really storm in, through the back door. “
The Blue Jays were certainly happy with Matz’s masterful performance after Friday’s rain. Their starting rotation was torn apart by injuries just three weeks after the start of the season, including a 7-5 loss to Kansas City on Thursday-evening.
In the nightcap, the Blue Jays sent Tommy Milone to the mound against the Royals’ Ervin Santana.
The well-traveled Santana had not climbed a mound in the big league with the White Sox since April 24, 2019. Santana spent the 2013 season with the Royals, starting for them for the first time in 2,761 days.