Depleted Royals use call-ups to beat Jays

Double-a call-up Angel Zerpa pitched five innings to win for the first time as a big league starter, Bobby Witt Jr. hit a tiebreaking home run and the depleted Kansas City Royals overcame the absence of 10 unvaccinated players to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 Thursday.

Fellow call-up Nate Eaton hit his first career homer as the Royals won for the fifth time in six games.

Foreign nationals who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 are not allowed to enter Canada, save for limited exceptions that require a 14-day quarantine. Unvaccinated baseball players are placed on the restricted list, which means they are not paid and do not accrue major league service time.

Among the 10 players on Kansas City’s 26-man roster who stayed home were All-star outfielder Andrew Benintendi, two-time Allstar Whit Merrifield, future cornerstones Kyle Isbel and MJ Melendez and outfielder Michael A. Taylor.

MARINERS 6, RANGERS 5» Ty France hit a two-run single in the eighth inning as visiting Seattle rallied from a four-run deficit in Texas, extending their winning streak to 11 games.

BRAVES 5, NATIONALS 4» Kyle Wright (11-4) earned his 11th win to tie the major league lead for visiting Atlanta. Michael Harris II, Matt Olson and Dansby Swanson homered for the Braves, who has won five of their last seven.

GUARDIANS 4, TIGERS 0» Triston Mckenzie struck out a career-high 12 and extended his scoreless streak to 21 innings, leading the Guardians in Cleveland.

MARLINS 3, PIRATES 2 (11 INNINGS) » Brian Anderson atoned for a costly error with a two-run triple in the 11th inning and the Marlins won in Miami. Anderson originally was hit by a pitch from reliever Wil Crowe (3-6) but the Pirates successfully challenged, saying it hit hit his bat first. Anderson then sent a drive to deep right center that scored Jesús Aguilar and Avisaíl Garcíia.

RAYS 5, RED SOX 4» Taylor Walls and Yandy Díaz had two-run singles in a fiverun outburst in the seventh, lifting host Tampa Bay and completing a fourgame sweep.

REDS 7, YANKEES 6 » Joey Votto lined a tiebreaking double in a three-run 10th inning for his second goahead hit of the night, and Cincinnati earn a series win (two of three) in New York.

METS 8, CUBS 0» Carlos Carrasco pitched six sharp innings, Brandon Nimmo and Pete Alonso homered and New York gave host Chicago a seventh straight loss.

ROCKIES 8, PADRES 5» Randal Grichuk doubled twice and drove in three runs, C.J. Cron (wrist) had two hits in his return for host Colorado.

WHITE SOX 12, TWINS 2» Luis Robert hit his first grand slam and Johnny Cueto pitched six strong innings for visiting Chicago.