Durbin Has an Impressive Start for Royals in 9-3 Win

Rookie Chad Durbin picked a near-perfect day to show off to his family.

Durbin’s family drove all the way from Warsaw, Ind., to see him make his first start in the major leagues. He gave up only one hit in six innings and Kansas City scored all nine of its runs in the sixth inning as the Royals beat the Blue Jays, 9-3, Thursday at Toronto.

“I got three game balls and I gave two of them to my family,” said Durbin, whose mother Debra, stepfather Max and 16-year-old sister Stephanie made the trip.

“They came up yesterday, drove all night, got in at three, slept till 11, got up and watched the game, and now they’re headed back out,” Durbin said.

Durbin (1-0) retired the side in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings. The 22-year-old right-hander, making his second major league appearance, walked one and struck out two.

Darrin Fletcher’s first-pitch homer leading off the bottom of the third was Toronto’s lone hit off Durbin.

Seattle 5, Boston 2--Mike Cameron and David Bell hit consecutive home runs in the eighth inning and Alex Rodriguez drove in two runs as the Mariners rallied to win at Seattle.

Jose Mesa pitched one-plus inning for the victory and Kazuhiro Sasaki struck out the side in the ninth for his first save. Sasaki is the career saves leader in Japan with 229 for the Yokohama BayStars.

Chicago 6, Texas 2--Ray Durham homered on the first pitch of the game and Frank Thomas and Carlos Lee also connected at Arlington, Texas.

James Baldwin (1-0) retired the first 13 batters and gave up two runs and six hits in eight innings.

Durham set a White Sox record with his 10th leadoff homer. Tim Raines had nine leadoff homers for Chicago.

Tampa Bay 7, Minnesota 6--Miguel Cairo had a career-best five runs batted in, including the game-winning single off Hector Carrasco in the ninth, to lift the Devil Rays at Minneapolis.