KC's Greinke continues mastery of Mariners

SEATTLE (AP) - Zack Greinke allowed two hits over seven innings and continued his mastery of the Seattle Mariners in the Kansas City Royals' 3-2 victory Tuesday.

Greinke (5-8) is 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA in 10 career appearances against the Mariners. Last Aug. 30, he tossed a career-best one-hitter at Safeco Field, retiring the final 22 Mariners in a row.

Wilson Betemit drove in all the runs for the Royals on a fifth-inning home run, a two-out, bases-loaded infield single in the sixth and a two-out RBI single in the eighth.

Joakim Soria worked the ninth to pick up his major league-leading 24th save in 26 opportunities.

Greinke, who has won four straight decisions, held the Mariners without a run for the first three innings to set the franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings against one team. He kept the Mariners off the scoreboard for 31 consecutive innings, two more than Paul Splittorff against the Chicago White Sox from September 1972 to July 1973.

A fan interference call in the eighth inning may have prevented the Mariners from tying the game. Jack Wilson scored on a sacrifice fly by Chone Figgins that made it 3-2 with two outs and Ichiro Suzuki on first.

Russell Branyan then hit a double down the right-field line but a young fan leaned over and touched it. Suzuki's speed likely would have allowed him to score from first but the umpires ruled a ground-rule double and Suzuki returned to third. Jose Lopez ended it with a groundout.

The Mariners broke Greinke's scoreless spell when Michael Saunders opened the third with an infield single and moved to second when second baseman Aviles through wildly to first. Josh Bard's right-side groundout advanced Saunders to third.

Jack Wilson then squared on Greinke's first pitch and pushed a bunt toward first. It was a safety-squeeze, as Saunders held up momentarily. Greinke covered the bunt but didn't even look at the plate. He threw to first as Saunders scored.

It appeared that Greinke turned an ankle as he came off the mound to field the ball. He threw several pitches under the trainer's eye but remained in the game.

Betemit tied it in the fifth with a leadoff home run. It was Betemet's fourth and the 17th allowed by Ryan Rowland-Smith (1-8), second most in the American League.

The Royals had a potentially big rally in the eighth but a leg injury to Jose Guillen cut it short.

David DeJesus and Billy Butler opened the eighth with singles. Guillen then hit a slow grounder to third baseman Lopez, who threw to second for the force. But Guillen pulled up lame running down the line, allowing the Mariners to easily double him at first. He had to leave the game.

Betemit followed with his RBI single to left, scoring DeJesus. Betemit then would be thrown out at the plate trying to score on Aviles double into the left-field corner.