Knowing a heavy rainstorm was bearing down on Kansas City, Ned Yost made a few adjustments, such as employing late-game strategy in the third inning. The Royals manager had Chris Getz lay down a sacrifice, something he almost never does so early, and two batters later Alex Gordon lashed a two-run double down the right-field line. Wilson Betemit also drove in two runs and Bruce Chen did the rest, pitching eight strong innings to help the Royals post a 5-1 rain-shortened victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night. "We played the third inning like it was the seventh inning," Yost said. "The key to that inning was Alex Gordon's two-run double. That was a great at-bat by Alex. It got us on the board knowing that rain was coming somewhere in the night. We had reports it was going to start at 8, at 8:15 and 8:30, a pretty good downpour. So we tried to get on the board early in case it came in the first four or five innings." Read more: http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=310414107&teams=seattle-mariners-vs-kansas-city-royals
