KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Mike Sweeney put the ball in play. The

unpredictable physics of baseball did the rest.

Sweeney's two-out, two-run double in the ninth inning skidded

past third baseman Eric Hinske, and sent the Kansas City Royals to

a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Adams gave up a single to Desi Relaford to open the ninth but

then retired Aaron Guiel and Angel Berroa on ground balls.

Carlos Beltran followed with a walk before Sweeney delivered.

Hinske let the ball play him, and it got past his backhand try and

down the left-field line.

"The ball stayed down, and I just couldn't get to it," Hinske

said.

Beltran raced home from first, easily beating the relay.

"I was at first, and I looked up and Carlos was already at

third," Sweeney said. "I just thought, 'Wow, he's going to score

here."

Adams flipped his glove in the air in frustration as he walked

off the mound.

"I made the pitch I needed to make, and he put the ball on the

ground," Adams said. "It's out of my hands after that."

Sweeney's game-winner off Terry Adams (3-2) gave the Royals

back-to-back victories for the first time since April 9-11, when

they took three in a row from Cleveland. Since then, they had lost

eight straight series before winning two of three from the Blue

Jays.

It was the fourth time this season that the Royals won the game

in their last at-bat.

"This is our game," said Beltran, who hit his 10th homer in

the first inning off Ted Lilly for a 1-0 lead. "This is what we

have to do. We have to create runs."

Chris Gomez's eighth-inning RBI single off reliever Nate Field

(2-0) gave the Blue Jays a 3-2 lead. Toronto stranded 13 runners

and left the bases loaded three times.

But after giving up the go-ahead hit to Gomez, Field retired six

of the next seven batters he faced with three strikeouts.

"I've been in that situation a lot this season," Field said.

"You just have to go after guys and throw strikes."

The Royals turned four double plays in the first five innings

behind starter Jeremy Affeldt. But in the fifth inning, after

Affeldt made a diving grab of Gregg Zaun's bunt and threw to second

to double off Hinske, the Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead with two

well-placed hits.

First, Reed Johnson's blooper fell just inside the right-field

line for an RBI single. Then, Frank Catalanotto's ground ball

ticked off the glove of diving third baseman Joe Randa for a

one-run double.

The Royals tied it at 2 in the fifth after Relaford walked, went

to third on Berroa's double and scored when second baseman Orlando

Hudson dropped the relay throw.

Lilly gave up two runs and five hits in five innings. He walked

four.

Randa went 3-for-4.Game notes
Johnson extended his hitting streak to seven games with a

first-inning single. ... Beltran's first-inning homer was the 13th

straight run charged to Lilly to score on a home run. ... The two

teams tied the season series, both winning three games each. ...

Zaun, the Blue Jays' catcher, and plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth

both had to be examined by trainers after one pitch in the first

inning. Kansas City's Ken Harvey hit Zaun in the left arm with his

follow-through swing, and Affeldt's pitch hit Culbreth in the right

arm. ... Catalanotto hit into a double play in the first inning,

the first time he has done so this season.