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  Thursday, Jul. 27 8:05pm ET
Dye OK after collision with wall
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Kansas City Royals were just glad to have Jermaine Dye back in the clubhouse after the game.

Dye
Dye

The Royals lost their All-Star right fielder to a concussion, then lost to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-5 Thursday night.

Dye was injured when he ran into the wall trying to catch Jose Canseco's double in the third inning.

"I heard a bang against the wall that definitely was not the ball," center fielder Johnny Damon said. "It was scary. I knew something had to be wrong. We're going to miss his bat in the lineup for the next couple of days."

Dye backpedaled and appeared to hit the wall hard with the back of his head, and crumpled to the ground. He stayed down for a couple of minutes, then was driven off on a cart and taken to a hospital. "I went back and glanced back to see where the wall was so I could get my steps down before I jumped. I turned around and the ball was on the other side. I kind of had whiplash against the wall," Dye said.

"I was dazed. I was out for about three seconds, and I didn't really know what was going on for a minute. I'm OK now."

Royals manager Tony Muser said Dye will not play Friday and is "50-50 for Saturday. He should be back by the end of the weekend."

The Royals committed a season-high four errors, three of which occurred in the first two innings and led to four unearned runs by Tampa Bay.

"This team is based on pretty good defense," Damon said. "We certainly did not do that tonight. They took advantage of that. They scored every time we committed an error. Right there is the ballgame."

Gerald Williams had three hits and drove in three runs for the Devil Rays.

Tampa Bay bench coach Bill Russell wound up 2-0 while replacing suspended manager Larry Rothschild. The penalty was imposed for Rothschild's altercation with umpire Laz Diaz in a game July 18 against Atlanta.

"We got some breaks and capitalized," Rothschild said. "A win is a win. We just did enough to win the game. Gerald had a good night."

Damon had four hits and stole two bases. Since the All-Star break, he is batting .514.

Ryan Rupe (3-4) was the winning pitcher. After pinch-hitter Dave McCarty had a two-run single in the ninth, Roberto Hernandez relieved for his 18th save.

Chad Durbin (2-5) took the loss, hurt by the unearned runs.

"Chad didn't pitch well, but he didn't pitch bad enough to be down 6-2 after three innings," Muser said. "When we put a young kid out there, we put a lot of pressure on him because of a lack of defense behind him."

A throwing error by third baseman Joe Randa led to Fred McGriff's sacrifice fly in the Devil Rays first. The Royals tied it in the bottom half on Damon's double and Mike Sweeney's single.

Second baseman Carlos Febles' error set up a three-run second for Tampa Bay. John Flaherty singled, Felix Martinez walked on four pitches and Williams hit a two-run double.

Miguel Cairo then flied out to Dye, who made a wild throw home that eluded catcher Gregg Zaun and Durbin, who was backing up the play. The ball went into the stands and two runners scored on Dye's error.

Dye was replaced by Scott Pose after being hurt trying to catch Canseco's drive. Canseco later scored on Vinny Castilla's sacrifice fly.

Williams doubled home a run in the eighth.

Game notes
Williams had his fifth multihit game in his last eight games. He ranks second among major league leadoff hitters with 58 RBIs. ... Sweeney is 33-for-97 so far in July, but 31 of the 33 hits have been singles. The other two hits were home runs.
 


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Kansas City 5

Minnesota 9
NY Yankees 3

Texas 7
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Chi. White Sox 6
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Boston 5
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NY Mets 4
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(2nd game)

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