Royals find winning formula against punchless Nationals

Robbie Grossman supplied a two-run single, and the visiting Kansas City Royals survived the early departure of starter Michael Lorenzen in a 3-0 win against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.

Michael Massey and Salvador Perez had two hits each for Kansas City (84-74), which helped its American League wild-card chances by winning its second straight game after losing seven in a row.

Both Kansas City and Detroit (also 84-74) won on Wednesday to hold the second and third wild-card spots behind the Baltimore Orioles, who have already clinched a postseason berth.

Lorenzen, making his first start back from a hamstring injury, motioned for a trainer and left the game with one out in the third inning.

Daniel Lynch IV (2-0) tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings for the win as six Royals pitchers combined on the two-hit shutout. Lucas Erceg pitched the ninth for his 13th save.

The Nationals (69-89) have been shut out three games in a row for the second time in franchise history and have gone 31 innings without a run. Washington has lost eight of nine and scored one run or less in seven of those games.

Nationals starter DJ Herz (4-9) allowed a run on three hits over five innings in the final start of his rookie campaign. Herz made 19 starts and finished with a 4.16 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 88 2/3 innings.

Kyle Isbel led off the Kansas City third inning with a walk and Tommy Pham singled. Isbel went to third when Bobby Witt Jr. flied out and scored the game's first run when Masey lined a single to right.

Perez led off the sixth with a single against reliever Eduardo Salazar. Yuli Gurriel's hard grounder was deflected by shortstop Nasim Nunez and rolled into left field for a double. Grossman lined a single to center, scoring both runners to make it 3-0. He was 3-for-24 with no RBIs for the Royals before the at-bat.

The Nationals led off with a pair of walks against John Schreiber in the seventh, but he rebounded to strike out Jacob Young and Nasim Nunez, and Dylan Crews flied out to Pham at the wall in right to keep Washington scoreless.

--Field Level Media