Rain wreaks havoc with Jays, Royals

KANSAS CITY 2 TORONTO 1

Royals manager Matt Quatraro was frustrated that his team was left hanging in limbo. Blue Jays counterpart John Schneider was equally perturbed that his team wasn’t being given a chance to finish out a game it was losing.

At least Quatraro felt a bit better in the end.

After playing five innings, then waiting out a bizarre rain delay that stretched to 3 hours, 38 minutes, the Royals finally were declared a 2-1 winner Thursday — their third straight one-run victory to wrap up their four-game set with Toronto.

Salvador Perez provided both of their runs with a two-out, tworun homer off José Berrios (4-1) in the first, and Cole Ragans (1-2) earned the win by allowing the lone Blue Jays run on three hits and three walks in five rainsoaked innings.

“What was getting frustrating to me,” Quatraro said, “was just like: ‘All right. Let’s make the decision, one way or the other.’ Tell us to get out there and play or tell us to go home.”

The strange sequence of events began when the fifth inning ended, and an early drizzle had turned into a steady rain. Umpire chief Chris Guccione called for the tarp to cover the infield, but Schneider came out and objected, arguing that his club deserved another opportunity to tie or take the lead. Guccione told the grounds crew to roll the tarp back and attempt to get the field in playing shape, but about 10 minutes later, the umpire summoned the tarp again.

The field was covered for about two hours. When the rain stopped, the grounds crew went to work, pouring dozens of bags of dry dirt on it.

But after another hour-plus spent working on the field, Guccione made the decision to call the game complete.

The decision didn’t sit well with Schneider.

“I think the entire day was handled kind of poorly, just from the start of the game,” he said. “What was said out there was the fact that the field was unplayable and they didn’t want to continue the game. In my opinion, the field was significantly better than it was in the third, fourth and fifth inning.”

Mariners 4, Rangers 3

ARLINGTON, Texas — Ty France and the Seattle Mariners never left Texas with a win last season. In their first trip to the Rangers’ ballpark this year, they took the series and first place in the AL West from the reigning World Series champions

France and Urías hit two-run homers and Luis Castillo pitched six solid innings in a 4-3 win Thursday to take two of three in a stadium where the Mariners had lost eight games in a row, including all six last season.