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  Friday, Apr. 28 8:05pm ET
Royals raise record to 9-1 at home
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Joe Randa, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Febles all drove in two runs and a crowd of more than 36,000 saw the Kansas City Royals beat Seattle 8-5 Friday night for their seventh straight home victory.

Excluding season openers, the paid attendance of 36,317 was the biggest crowd for an April game in Kansas City since 1989.

The Royals, whose slumping attendance in recent years has fueled fears the team might leave town, own the best home record (9-1) in the league and had won their previous six at home in their final at-bat.

Miguel Batista (1-0), in his first appearance since being acquired from Montreal on Tuesday, went four innings in relief for his first AL win. He gave up one hit and walked three.

Brett Tomko (1-1) lost for the first time in eight career decisions against AL teams. He went 6 2/3 innings and was charged with six runs on eight hits, with three walks and three strikeouts.

Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the Mariners ninth. Ricky Bottalico gave up an RBI single to Tom Lampkin before getting the last out for his second save.

Beltran, the slump-ridden 1999 AL Rookie of the Year, tripled off Tomko in the first to tie it and Randa's single made it 3-2.

In the seventh, Mike Sweeney hit a sacrifice fly and Jermaine Dye and Randa had RBI singles. Febles' two-run single off Jose Paniagua in the eighth made it 8-2.

John Olerud put the Mariners on top 2-0 with a two-run single off starter Jay Witasick in the first. Stan Javier and Rodriguez walked ahead of him and both scored on the low liner into center.

Witasick, a 4-2 loser to Tomko in Seattle last week, went four innings plus two batters and gave up two runs on five hits and five walks.

Game notes
The last time the Royals had a bigger April crowd excluding season openrs was April 30, 1989, when the Milwaukee Brewers drew 40,113. ... When Witasick walked Rodriguez in the first inning, it marked the sixth straight time Royals pitchers had given him a free pass. He set a club record last time the Royals played Seattle with five walks in the game. In all, Kansas City pitched walked 10 Friday night. ... Tomko and Witasick combined to throw 63 pitches in the first inning, which lasted 31 minutes. ... The Royals loaded the bases with two out in the third but Tomko got Mark Quinn to ground sharply up the middle and second baseman Mark McLemore made a good play.
 


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