Allgemein » aying better.Kris Versteeg took a nice crossing pass from

TORONTO -- Like hes done all month, Edwin Encarnacion did his part to put the Toronto offence in position for a victory. It was the defence that came up short Thursday night and it proved costly in an 8-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals. With two outs in the ninth inning, Toronto shortstop Jose Reyes had a chance to seal the win on a routine ground ball. However, his throw was low and pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson came around from second base to tie the game. The Royals scored two more runs in the 10th inning to end Torontos season-high nine-game winning streak. "Theres no excuse," Reyes said. "I should make a better throw there. Thats a routine ground ball, I got it perfect. I just didnt have enough on the throw." Omar Infante drove in a pair of runs off Toronto reliever Todd Redmond (0-4) in the 10th inning as Kansas City (25-28) ended its four-game losing skid. Greg Holland got the last three outs for his 15th save. "Well you dont expect to lose one like that," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "But you know what, weve been playing some good baseball. The key is just to come back out and play a good clean game tomorrow." Encarnacion continued his phenomenal play this month by launching two no-doubt homers to give him 18 on the season and a team record 16 for the month. "To watch what hes been doing this month, I dont know where it goes down in history but its pretty historic in my mind anyway," Gibbons said. Jose Bautista also homered for the Blue Jays, who had their seven-game home winning streak come to an end. Encarnacion is now one away from tying Barry Bonds major-league record for most homers in the month of May. Bonds hit 17 with San Francisco in May 2001. The Toronto slugger also has five multi-homer games this month, which ties the major-league record for any month currently shared by Albert Belle (September 1995) and Harmon Killebrew (May 1959). Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey pitched to two batters in the sixth inning before being pulled. He said the team will focus on its positive play over the last few weeks. "Jose makes that play 99 out of 100 times, it was just a real fluke thing," Dickey said. "But we cant second-guess things the way that weve been playing and the way weve been pitching and hitting. I mean, Edwin -- what can you say? "I mean its been fun to watch and to be on a team where so many things are going well and I think itll continue tomorrow. I think this was just kind of a mild hiccup." The American League East-leading Blue Jays fell to 32-23 with the loss. Kansas City starter James Shields worked seven innings and reliever Wade Davis (4-1) pitched two innings for the win. The Royals left 11 batters on base but outhit Toronto 14-9. "I was really pleased with the way we swung the bats tonight," said manager Ned Yost. "We were driving balls. We just had some great at-bats." Salvador Perez hit his fifth homer of the season for the Royals in the second inning and Kansas City added three runs in the fifth. The Royals also loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh inning but Aaron Loup got out of the jam by striking out Alcides Escobar on three pitches. Closer Casey Janssen, who was looking to pick up his ninth save, recorded the first two outs in the ninth before Alex Gordons single. He was replaced by Dyson, who stole second. "We were facing a hot team that had swept their last three teams," Dyson said. "I thought we did a great job to come over here and kind of break that up a little bit and get going." In the 10th, Redmond gave up a single to Escobar to open the inning and Pedro Ciriaco reached when he was beaned while squaring up to bunt. Nori Aoki advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Notes: Announced attendance was 17,978 and the game took three hours 26 minutes to play. ... Encarnacion belted his second homer of the night into the second deck in left field -- virtually the same spot as his first blast. The crowd gave him a standing ovation and he came out of the dugout to tip his hat. ... Bautista threw out Billy Butler from right field for the second out in the ninth inning. ... Torontos J.A. Happ (4-1) is scheduled to start Friday night against fellow left-hander Jason Vargas (4-2). ... The Rogers Centre roof was closed despite comfortable spring conditions outside. Mikkel Boedker Jersey .6 seconds left to give the Toronto Raptors a 92-89 victory over the Boston Celtics in an exhibition game Wednesday night. Brady Tkachuk Jersey . Johns, N.L., to Thunder Bay, Ont., after a deal was announced to build a new $106-million "event centre" in the Lake Superior community. http://www.senatorssale.com/authentic-craig-anderson-senators-jersey/ . The Mercedes duo of three-time Canadian Grand Prix champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg has won all six races to start the season, finishing one-two in the last five. Mark Borowiecki Jersey . The Canucks figured to be active prior to Wednesdays trade deadline, getting a jump on things the previous day when they dealt goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers for netminder Jacob Markstrom and forward Shawn Matthias. Jason Spezza Senators Jersey .com) - The 2014 Holiday Bowl is the first postseason venture pitting a pair of ranked foes against each other, as No.ST. LOUIS - The St. Louis Blues needed something to get them going after a two-game losing streak. A visit from the rival Chicago Blackhawks seemed to help.Jaden Schwartz, Ryan Reaves and Dmitrij Jaskin all scored, and the Blues snapped their skid with a 3-2 win against the Blackhawks on Saturday night.We had to win one game to get things going back in the right direction, said Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo, who had two assists. Theres nothing better than playing against an opponent like this, division rival, big game for us.We know what theyve done, and coming in after losing to them in the playoffs last year certainly gives it a little bit of an extra edge. I thought we all stepped up to the plate.The Blues (3-3-1), who lost in six games to the Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs last spring, had scored just once in losing back-to-back games to Anaheim and Vancouver. They had dropped three of four games, including a shootout defeat in Los Angeles.We hit a bit of a lull the last two games and we needed a great performance, and who better than our biggest rivals to bring it out of us, Blues captain David Backes said. Guys put together a heck of a 60-minute effort.Brian Elliott made 22 saves for St. Louis, including nine in the third period. Antti Raanta made 28 saves for the Blackhawks.The Blackhawks (4-2-1) have dropped two straight in regulation, falling again after being beaten in Nashville on Thursday.The Blues committed two penalties within the first minute, and the Blackhawks took advantage with Patrick Sharps 5-on-3 power-play goal, assisted by Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa, just 1:02 into the game.The first five minutes were a little bit of a whirlwind, and everybody kind of calmed things down, and we got our game going, Elliott said. Thats the way we need to play, just that even-keeled mentality. In a high-intensity game against a good opponent like that we responded from our last couple games, not really burying and not really putting away teams when we had the chance.The Blues tied it when Schwartz scored his team-high fifth goal of the season. Scchwartz beat Raanta between the pads with 7:45 left in the first period.ddddddddddddSt. Louis scored twice in the final two minutes of the second period.Reaves netted his first of the season with 1:51 left in the period following a video review that showed he knocked in a rebound of Maxim Lapierres shot.I dont know how the rules are but I made a save, and the guy came and pushed me into the net, and then the puck came over the line, Raanta said. I think that was a little bit like goalie interference or something.You cant say anything, but of course that was a little bit like a bad call by the refs, but its hard to say what they were seeing. It felt a little bit like a bad goal, but I dont know what else I should say.Jaskin, recalled from Chicago of the AHL on Friday, then put in a rebound of a shot by Pietrangelo with 6 seconds remaining for his second career goal.That was huge for us, Jaskin said. Even that second goal just got us going, and that was really important. We really started playing better.Kris Versteeg took a nice crossing pass from Sharp and beat Elliott with a high wrister over the goalies stick-side shoulder to make it 3-2 at 2:37 of the third period.We scored a goal and had some momentum back but didnt get the equalizer, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said.NOTES: The Blues have won four straight regular-season home games against the Blackhawks, the first such streak in the series since March 3, 1998-Jan. 7, 1999. ... Chicago G Corey Crawford missed his third consecutive game due to an upper-body injury. ... St. Louis forward Paul Stastny, placed on the injured list on Friday, missed his third straight game. ... Quenneville and St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock are the active leaders in victories. Quenneville has 710, and Hitchcock has 660. ... Both of Jaskins goals have come against the Blackhawks. ... Quenneville said LW Daniel Carcillo could be out multiple weeks after hurting his right knee on a hit from T.J. Oshie early in the third period. ... The attendance of 19,434 was the second sellout for the Blues in four home games this season. ' ' '