And there was nothing we could do to take it back

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Danny Duffy trudged off the mound with the bases loaded and his team trailing by a run, and took a seat in the dugout to watch Jason Frasor try to bail him out. He roared when the Royals reliever struck out Chris Colabello to end the threat. "He came through with flying colours," Duffy said with a smile. Buoyed by the clutch pitching, Kansas City churned out three doubles in the bottom half of the inning Wednesday night, scoring all their runs in an eventual 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins. "Frasor was huge with the bases loaded," Royals manager Ned Yost said. Just about everybody who stepped on the mound for Kansas City came up big. Duffy allowed only a homer by Josh Willingham over 5 2-3 innings, despite walking a season-high six. Scott Downs and Kelvin Herrera gave back a run in the seventh, but Herrera struck out Brian Dozier and Willingham with runners on second and third to preserve the Royals one-run lead. Wade Davis worked a perfect eighth, and All-Star closer Greg Holland survived two wild pitches that sent Eduardo Nunez to third base by striking out Sam Fuld for his 28th save. "Anytime you lose a battle like that its frustrating, especially with game on line," Fuld said. "Holland made a great pitch. We battled him." The Twins Phil Hughes (10-8) showed no lingering effects from a comebacker off his right ankle that cut short his last outing. He allowed only three singles before the sixth, when the Royals were able to finally string together a series of hits that gave them the lead. Omar Infante led off the sixth with a single and Salvador Perez added a tying double moments later. Alex Gordon followed with an RBI double to centre, and Mike Moustakas pulled another run-scoring double just inside the first-base line to give Kansas City a 3-1 lead. The Royals bullpen and defence made each run seem huge. Perez made the first of several memorable plays in the third inning, when he picked Nunez off first base with a snap throw. Duffy picked Fuld off first in the fourth, and Dozier was thrown out at the plate on a base-running mistake later in the inning. "Im trying to make an aggressive play," Dozier said. Perezs best play may have come in the seventh, when he leaped from the behind the plate to grab a sacrifice bunt and throw the runner out at first. Herrera followed with his strikeouts to leave the go-ahead run standing on second. "That was a big play right there," Yost said. "That was a great play by Sal." WADE IN THE WATERS Davis continues to dazzle in his setup role. His scoreless eighth inning Wednesday night gave him a 0.99 ERA in 43 games. The former starter is still the only pitcher in the major leagues with more than five appearances who hasnt allowed an extra-base hit. GORDO DOUBLES UP Gordon finished 3 for 4 with two doubles, the All-Star left fielders first three-hit game at Kauffman Stadium since May 18, against Baltimore. It was the first time he had two doubles in a game since doing it April 12, in Minnesota. WILLINGHAM THE LONER Willingham has hit 11 homers this season, eight with nobody on base. That includes the last six. And the fact that the bases were empty when he went deep Wednesday night proved costly when Minnesota was unable to coax another run across until the seventh inning. TRAINERS ROOM Twins: Catcher Joe Mauer (strained right oblique) took batting practice in the cage without any problems. Right-hander Mike Pelfrey began his throwing program after surgery on June 10 to relieve numbness caused by a nerve in his throwing elbow. Royals: First baseman Eric Hosmer was in the lineup for the second straight night after missing time with a bruised right hand. He finished 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. ON DECK Twins: Right-hander Kevin Correia (5-12) attempts to beat the Royals for the first time in 10 career starts. He has a 0-5 record with a 4.91 ERA against them. Royals: Right-hander Yordano Ventura (7-8) tries to improve his fortunes at Kauffman Stadium, where he is 3-6 this year. His last home win came in relief July 13 against Detroit. What is a good website to buy sports jerseys . The Rays hope to stay alive for the postseason and salvage the finale of this series Sunday at Rogers Centre, where they dropped a 7-2 decision Saturday. Chris Archer lasted 2 1/3 innings in the no-decision, charged with a run and five hits, and Alex Torres suffered the loss in relief. Where to Buy Cheap Jerseys . De La Rosa pitched six strong innings to win his sixth consecutive decision, Todd Helton homered and the Colorado Rockies snapped the Los Angeles Dodgers six-game winning streak with a 7-5 victory on Wednesday night. https://www.wheretobuycheapjerseys.com/ .C. -- The RBC Cups semifinal participants were decided by a pair of overtime games. What is the best place to buy Cheap Jerseys . Hes coming back to fulfil them. One of Europes top coaches, Blatt was hired Friday by the Cavaliers, who ended a sweeping, 39-day search with an out-of-the-box selection they hope changes their fortunes. What is the best place to buy knockoff jerseys . Now he can be had by any team willing to pay his salary. According to a report from ESPN, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are shopping the veteran CB and plan on releasing him Wednesday if they cant find a trade partner.TORONTO - James van Riemsdyk knew the Toronto Maple Leafs needed a bounce-back win after dropping back-to-back ugly losses to the Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators.Van Riemsdyk went top shelf twice in the second period and Jonathan Bernier provided a solid showing in goal to lead the Maple Leafs to a much-needed 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.It was nice for us to put that little streak, whatever you wanna call it, the bad play behind us, said van Riemsdyk. Now we have to build on this and find some consistency.Van Riemsdyk had his first two-goal game of the season and Bernier bounced back from a forgettable showing against Nashville on Tuesday as Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak in front of 19,089 fans at Air Canada Centre.David Clarkson, Richard Panik and Roman Polak also pitched in as Toronto (10-8-2) scored early in the first and added three more in the second.Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos replied for Tampa Bay (13-6-2).Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle said consistency has eluded Toronto this season, and he hoped the team can use their win over the Lightning to eliminate the ebbs and flows that have followed them around lately.Sometimes you have to accept that the hockey gods are going to be against you, and thats what we believed (Tuesday), he said. It was nine goals, and we were embarrassed by it. And there was nothing we could do to take it back. But we sure didnt want to have something bad happen to our hockey club tonight, and I think they were rewarded for their hard work.The Maple Leafs shot out to an early 1-0 lead when Daniel Winnik beat out an icing call, circled the net and fed a pass to David Clarkson, whose one-timer beat Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop.Killorn briefly tied it late in the first when he beaat Bernier with a short-handed, screened snapshot at 18:10 to make it 1-1 heading into the second.ddddddddddddThats when the Leafs took it to Tampa Bay, starting with a goal from former Lightning forward Richard Panik, who capitalized on a bad turnover by defender Matthew Carle and promptly tucked the puck past Bishop for a 2-1 lead.Van Riemsdyk then beat Bishop over his glove at the 12:31 mark of the period and then again on the power play at 15:15. On his second goal, Van Riemsdyk was left all alone with a rebound from a Phil Kessel wrister, electing to flip the puck past Bishop on the Leafs fourth goal. Van Riemsdyks second goal gave the Leafs a three-goal cushion heading into the third.At the other end of the ice, the normally high-scoring Lightning couldnt break through Bernier, who redeemed himself after being pulled from Tuesday nights 9-2 loss to Nashville after giving up three goals on 12 shots over 20 minutes.We executed like it was the first day of training camp, Lighting head coach Jon Cooper said. We play speed game, thats what puts teams on their heels. When were playing slow and were not executing were in trouble.Aside from the Killhorn goal in the first, Berniers only other blemish came when Stamkos scored one in close late in the third with the goalie pulled and just over four minutes to play.But despite a late Lightning charge in the final minute, Bernier stood tall to record his sixth win of the season, stopping 26 of 28 shots.I think were keeping it simple. We keep our forecheck going and I think thats a big reason why we can spend some time in their zone and kill some time, said Bernier. if you just back in to your zone, thats when youre gonna get a lot of shots.Polak put the puck in to the empty net to seal the win for Toronto ' ' '