Down by five, Kansas City battles back to win

KANSAS CITY (AP) - Elliot Johnson homered against his former team and the Kansas City Royals rallied from an early five-run hole, beating the Tampa Rays 9-8 on a cold, blustery Wednesday night.

Lorenzo Cain and Jeff Francoeur each drove in a pair of runs for the Royals, who trailed 5-0 in the third inning before slowly chipping away at the Tampa Bay lead.

They eventually pulled ahead with a five-run sixth off Rays reliever Jake McGee (0-2), and then held on through the final three innings for their second straight comeback win.

Bruce Chen (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Royals starter Luis Mendoza, and Greg Holland worked a perfect ninth inning in a light drizzle for his seventh save.

Matt Joyce, Ben Zobrist and Luke Scott each homered for the Rays, who dropped to 4-11 on the road this season. Starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson allowed four runs in five innings.

Kansas City will go for the series sweep today, assuming the game is even played. The forecast calls for temperatures in the upper 30s with a good chance of rain or snow.

It was 66 degrees and partly sunny at first pitch Wednesday, but the weather deteriorated quickly. The temperature dropped into the upper 40s by the later innings, and winds gusting more than 30 mph to right field turned every ball hit out of the infield into an adventure.

Tampa Bay jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Joyce homered for the second straight game, and Zobrist gave the Rays back-to-back homers for the first time this season. The solo shots also gave Tampa Bay at least one homer in 16 straight games, setting a new franchise record.

Kelly Johnson's RBI double and Desmond Jennings' sacrifice fly made it 4-0 in the second, and Evan Longoria's triple in the third turned into another run on James Loney's base hit.

Kansas City clawed back in the bottom half when Johnson homered over the wall in right field, his first home run since last September when he was still with the Rays.

Scott answered for Tampa Bay with a solo shot in the fourth, but the Royals scored again in the bottom half when Gordon's two-out base hit cut the Rays' lead to 6-2.

Kansas City kept peppering Hellickson in the fifth, this time with a leadoff double by Billy Butler and an RBI triple by Cain. Mike Moustakas followed with a sacrifice fly to center field that allowed Kansas City to get within two runs.

The Royals finally pulled ahead off McGee in the sixth.

They loaded the bases with two outs for Butler, who hit a liner right back at McGee that the pitcher managed to knock down but still scored a run. Eric Hosmer then hit a grounder deep in the hole at shortstop, and Yunel Escobar's error allowed the tying run to score.

Cain followed with a blooper to center that gave Kansas City the lead, and Francoeur greeted new reliever Kyle Farnsworth with a two-run single that made it 9-6.

Tim Collins entered for the Royals and coughed up most of the lead on Loney's RBI single and a two-out single by Scott, but Aaron Crow retired Jose Lobaton to escape the seventh inning.

Crow pitched a perfect eighth before Holland wrapped up the win.

Notes: RHP Roberto Hernandez starts today's series finale for Tampa Bay against Royals RHP Ervin Santana, assuming the game gets played. When told of the forecast, Rays manager Joe Maddon quipped, "That's not even good football weather." This is the Rays' only visit to Kansas City this season, creating some potential scheduling issues if the game is postponed.