Delgado, Jays Crown Royals

One day after playing nearly perfect baseball, reality and the Toronto Blue Jays came crashing down on the young Kansas City Royals.

The Blue Jays scored six runs five of them unearned in a ragged second inning and waltzed away with an 8-2 victory Thursday, providing what Royals manager Tony Muser called a valuable lesson.

"It is a tremendous learning experience for young people who had a great night and maybe came to the ballpark a little too excited and took things for granted," Muser said. "You can't take anything for granted."

The night before, in a 7-1 victory, the Royals turned in about 10 sparkling defensive plays in a performance which general manager Herk Robinson said almost brought tears to his eyes.

"They played so good last night, it caught up to them that inning," said Toronto manager Jim Fregosi.

Delgado, who wound up 4-for-5, added a run-scoring single in the ninth.

Pat Hentgen, 0-5 in his previous seven starts against the Royals, took a two-hitter into the seventh after retiring 14 in a row. But he needed relief help from Dan Plesac, who came in with the bases loaded and one out to retire Carlos Beltran on strikes and Joe Randa on a short fly.

"Obviously, it's huge when the offense does that for you," Hentgen said of the six-run second. "It lets you be more aggressive. You know one pitch can't beat you."

In 6 1-3 innings, Hentgen (3-1) gave up six hits and two runs, with two walks and four strikeouts.

Jose Rosado (2-2), fourth in the AL with a 1.93 ERA, was charged with seven runs in six innings, but only two were earned. He gave up nine hits, struck out two and walked three.

Kansas City's only error in the second went to first baseman Larry Sutton, who threw wildly to second on a potential double-play ball.

But third baseman Joe Randa also failed to handle a sharp grounder which went for a hit, and outfielders Beltran and Jermaine Dye let a ball rop between them that probably should have been caught in right-center.

"We are very unhappy right now," said Royals left fielder Johnny Damon, who went 0-for-5 and had his 16-game hitting streak snapped. "After last night, we really thought we had some momentum going."

Delgado singled off Randa's glove leading off the second, then after Tony Fernandez singled, Mark Dalesandro hit a sharp grounder to Sutton, whose throw pulled shortstop Rey Sanchez off the bag to load the bases.

One run came in when Rosado walked Jacob Brumfield, then Pat Kelly dumped an RBI single between Dye and Beltran.

A third run scored on a double-play grounder by Mike Matheny, then Shannon Stewart hit an RBI single for a 4-1 lead. A few minutes later, Delgado singled home two more runs for a 6-1 lead.

"The defense has been playing great. Yesterday, incredible," said Rosado.

He managed not to lose his composure, however.

"If they make bad plays behind you, you can't do that," he said.

Delasandro had a sacrifice fly in the fifth as the Blue Jays took the series two games to one.

Randa singled with one out in the Kansas City first, and scored on the first of Mike Sweeney's two doubles. In the seventh, Sutton, Chad Kreuter, Carlos Febles and Sanchez all singled off Hentgen.

"That's four good (starts) in a row for him," Fregosi said of Hentgen. "It's really a pleasant thing for him to know he's back to where he was."

Notes: Delgado's leadoff single in the second was the 500th hit of his five-year major league career. His two-run single later in the inning made him the second Blue Jay this year to hit safely twice in an inning. ... The Blue Jays have batted around 12 times this season. ... Royals catcher Tim Spehr left the game in the third inning to have X-rays taken on his right hand after being hit by a foul tip. The X-rays showed no break. ... The loss prevented the Royals from having their first winning homestand of the season. ... Sutton's error was the Royals' first in six games.

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