KANSAS CITY – For the fourth time in seven games, the Blue Jays blew a lead of at least three runs. While it would be easy to lay this one on the bullpen - Steve Delabar, Brett Cecil, Sergio Santos and Esmil Rogers got tagged for eight runs in the final two innings - this loss, by a final score of 10-7 to the Royals, was a total team effort. So much so, in fact, that manager John Gibbons, Kansas Citys bench coach as recently as 2011, took a veiled shot at his club while praising his old team. “I will say one thing about that team over there, because I was there when they were young,” said Gibbons. “They play nine innings. I dont care, up or down, they compete and they get after your ass and thats why theyre going to end up winning it one day.” Perhaps Gibbons was upset with catcher Dioner Navarro, who put on a clinic of how not to play defence in the second inning. First, with Royals at the corners and one out, Navarro attempted to back hand a Dustin McGowan slider in the dirt. The ball skipped off Navarros shin guard and towards the Royals first base dugout. Billy Butler, the runner on third, scored. Later in the second, again with runners at the corners, Navarro inexplicably attempted to throw out Alcides Escobar trying to steal second. The throw was offline and bounced into centrefield, allowing Alex Gordon, who was on third, to score. Perhaps Gibbons was upset with Edwin Encarnacion who, with two runners on and one out in the seventh, didnt hustle down the first baseline on a ground ball back to pitcher Kelvin Herrera. Usually a routine play, Herreras throw brought first baseman Eric Hosmer off the bas,e but because Encarnacion was only halfway down the line, Hosmer had plenty of time to collect himself and step on the bag for the out. Perhaps Gibbons was frustrated with Colby Rasmus and Jose Bautista, who converged on Gordons lead-off fly ball to right centrefield in the seventh. Neither took charge - its Rasmus job to do so - and the ball bounced on the warning track for a lead-off double. The Jays had a 5-2 lead at the time. Gordon would score one hitter later when Salvador Perez hit a two-run home run off of Delabar, marking the start of the Kansas City comeback. Perhaps Gibbons was frustrated with Melky Cabrera, who did tack on two more hits for a league-leading 41, but who also had a poor night in left field. Twice Royals runners took an extra base on Cabreras arm. Once because he displayed no urgency in getting the ball back to the infield and Cabrera also missed a cut-off man in the Royals six-run eighth, allowing a second run to score on a single by Omar Infante. The Blue Jays fell to 12-14. Gibbons called it a “crappy game.” Under the cirumstances, he was being polite. McGOWANS STRONG OUTING; STROMAN MAKES STATEMENT As Dustin McGowan took the mound in Tuesday nights series opener against the Royals, Marcus Stroman was wrapping up, perhaps, his most impressive appearance in his brief professional career. The two are linked. The belief is that the Blue Jays are growing weary of McGowans inability to work deep into ballgames; manager John Gibbons has repeatedly offered that he liked McGowans work out of the bullpen last season, thinking hes better suited to a one or two-inning role. McGowan is a type-1 diabetic and, as first reported by TSN.ca, he wore his insulin pump in an attempt to regulate his blood sugar level - it tends to skyrocket during games - and alleviate the fatigue that overtakes him in the middle innings. He pitched into the seventh inning for the first time this season, granted it was just one batter and Alex Gordon doubled, but it was a step forward. McGowan allowed three runs, two earned, on three hits, three walks and two strikeouts. He left with a lead, which was coughed up by the bullpen. “Real encouraged,” said McGowan. “I got deep in the game and thats all Ive been wanting to do. Sometimes the results are overshadowed by the innings you pitch, but as long as you get deep in games, good things happen once you get deep in games.” Stroman is among the clubs top pitching prospects and of those prospects, is considered to be the most major league ready. He showed it in Buffalo on Tuesday, hurling six hitless innings, striking out 10 and walking only one in what could be his final Bisons appearance before hes added to the 40-man roster and brought up to pitch in Pittsburgh this weekend. Gibbons has talked about using a six-man rotation through the next turn. The Blue Jays dont have another off day until May 19, which prevents Gibbons from rearranging the order of the rotation to facilitate additional days off for certain pitchers. If the Jays were weighing whether to go with McGowan or J.A. Happ on Monday in Philadelphia, after Stroman starts on Sunday in Pittsburgh, McGowans performance may have bought him at least one more start. GETZ ARRIVES; GOINS TO BUFFALO Chris Getz was shagging fly balls during Triple-A Buffalos batting practice on Monday afternoon when minor league field coordinator Doug Davis waved him in to give him the news he was on his way back to the big leagues. A former Royal who played in Kansas City for four seasons and not immediately aware of the Blue Jays next opponent, Getz was surprised to hear of his first stop destination. “It was pretty funny because I knew they had the off day and then Doug mentioned that, Hey, youve got a flight at 6:30 and youre heading to Kansas City,” said Getz. “Heading to Kansas City? I already played with them. Of course, Im playing against them, but it was cool to come back here and see a lot of familiar faces, teammates, but even the people working at the park. You get to know them over the years and theyre such good people here. I just kind of feel at home.” Getzs contract was selected from the Bisons in time for Tuesday nights opener with the Royals. He replaces Ryan Goins, who was optioned to Buffalo after a slow start at the plate. In 24 games and 66 plate appearances, Goins posted a slash line of .150/.203/.217 (.420 OPS), with one home run. “He was having good at-bats,” said hitting coach Kevin Seitzer. “I think if we were, as a group, doing better top-to-bottom, he would probably still be here. I dont know, thats not my decision, but I felt like his at-bats were getting better and better the last week, week-and-a-half.” This isnt it for Goins. The Blue Jays value his glove. Expect him to be back. “I told him, You go down there, be a good teammate, work hard, keep a good attitude which I know you will and apply the stuff that we worked on,” said Seitzer. “I said, I want you building confidence in everything youve done to this point to where you come back and dont go back.” Getz is a solid defensive second baseman who will bring a little more offence than Goins. For his six-year career with the White Sox and Royals, Getz, 30, is a .251/.310/.309 hitter. George Mullin Jersey . This time, it was Eric Chavezs turn. Stuck in a rut since coming off the disabled list, Chavez hit the first pitch he saw in the ninth inning for a run-scoring single, sending the Diamondbacks to another walk-off victory, 4-3 over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night. Sam Crawford Jersey .Just like old times.Only this time, just one got to enjoy a victory.James return to Miami as an opponent was a success — for the Heat, that is. 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Founding members of the Genie Army, a group of Eugenie Bouchard supporters who cheered for the rising tennis star during the Australian Open in January, will be in the city for the Rogers Cup, beginning this weekend.NEW YORK -- Make that back-to-back blowouts, and at least one Knick swears he saw it coming. "Yeah, I knew it was going to eventually happen. Im glad that it did," point guard Raymond Felton said. "It was a good night to happen in Brooklyn, then we came back tonight and showed it wasnt a fluke. Thats what a lot of people were trying to say. We came out tonight to really prove that." They sure did, once again looking more like a juggernaut than a joke. Carmelo Anthony had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and New York snapped a seven-game home losing streak by beating the Orlando Magic 121-83 on Friday night for its first victory at Madison Square Garden since October. "We got tired of losing. Whether we figured everything out in two games, thats yet to come, but well take these two wins," Anthony said. Andrea Bargnani and J.R. Smith each added 17 points for the Knicks, who followed their 113-83 rout of Brooklyn on Thursday with an even more powerful performance, giving them consecutive victories for the first time this season after a nine-game losing streak. "At some point it was going to get unleashed," Felton said. "Brooklyn was just the team that got the first wrath of it, so everybody else is going to have to feel it later on, too." The Knicks hadnt won at home since beating Milwaukee in their season opener on Oct. 30. The seven-game skid had matched the longest in franchise history, set during the 2007-08 season. They ended it emphatically, just missing the biggest victory in the NBA this season, the Clippers 39-point rout of Chicago on Nov. 24, according to STATS. "I think the results of their game in Brooklyn carried over to this game," Orlando coach Jacque Vaughn said. "They shot the ball extremely well like they did in Brooklyn, so there you have an NBA game for you." The Knicks made a season-best 17 3-pointers -- a night after hitting 16 -- and turned it into another easy night for Anthony, who took only 10 shots one night aafter attempting only 12.dddddddddddd "I wanted to try to do something a little different to see if it worked," he said. "Me scoring 30 wasnt working." New York moved ahead of the Nets and out of last place. Despite their struggles, the Knicks (5-13) are only 2 1/2 games behind first-place Boston in the pathetic Atlantic Division, and can move even closer when they host the Celtics on Sunday afternoon. Arron Afflalo scored 20 points for the Magic, who dropped their fourth straight. Victor Oladipo added 17 points and nine rebounds. Amare Stoudemire sat out for the Knicks, still not ready to play on back-to-back nights after off-season knee surgery. No matter, as Metta World Peace picked up the extra minutes and scored 12 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 15 and Felton had 14. The Knicks broke it open by outscoring the Magic 30-15 in the third quarter to open a 20-point lead. The highlight came on a ferocious drive and dunk by Iman Shumpert. Orlando fell to 1-8 on the road, running out to a quick start but then getting run over from there. The Magic hit six of their first seven shots, including all three 3-pointers, to storm to a 15-5 lead. The Knicks started 2 for 12 but eventually got going and trailed just 31-28 after one. The Knicks answered with five 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes of the second quarter, going ahead 43-35, and took a 59-54 advantage into halftime. "They put us in tough situations," Orlando guard Jameer Nelson said. "We just have to recognize situations and get better at them so it (doesnt) happen again." Nelson was back for Orlando after missing three straight games with a sprained left foot, but leading rebounder Nik Vucevic missed his second in a row with a sprained left ankle. NOTES: The Knicks seven-game winning streak against Orlando is their longest active streak against an opponent. They have beaten Milwaukee six straight times. ... Shumpert finished with 10 points and every Knicks player scored. ' ' '