KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Luke Hochevar was taken aback when he walked into the managers office one day and manager Ned Yost and the Royals coaches started trying to convince him to make a change. Simplify your approach, they said. Use your three core pitches. It took a while for Hochevar to buy in. Now the change is paying off. The mercurial right-hander struck out eight in his second career shutout, and the Kansas City offence made sure to come through in an 8-0 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night. "I guess I have to come up with a better word than fantastic, tremendous and great. He was phenomenal," Yost said. "The results have been dramatically improved since he got back to his three core pitches. Hes starting to show exactly what he can do." His arsenal pared down to primarily a four-seam fastball, curveball and change-up, Hochevar (5-7) mowed through a weak-hitting Tampa Bay lineup for his first shutout since Sept. 18, 2009. Now, the pitcher who was allowing nearly a run per inning earlier in the year has gone 16 2-3 scoreless innings, and is starting to resembled a former No. 1 overall draft pick. "That was a great outing by Hoch," said Eric Hosmer, who tacked on a homer in the eighth inning to finish off the scoring. "He was in the zone, he was pounding pitches. He was great." Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon both had three hits for the Royals, who were coming off an embarrassing sweep at the hands of St. Louis in which they were outscored 30-14 and burned through their bullpen -- which made the start by Hochevar all the more impressive. No Royals starter had even gone eight innings so far this season. "If you dont get him early and permit him to settle in, he gets better," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He was all over us tonight" Alex Cobb (3-4) also managed to throw a complete game, the first of his career, though it wasnt nearly as impressive: He allowed 13 hits while falling to 1-4 in his last five starts. "In the first few innings, I just felt uncomfortable out there," he said. "Everything they were hitting was dropping. Unfortunately, they were falling everywhere." The banged-up Rays came into the game riding plenty of momentum after a double-header sweep of Philadelphia, while the Royals limped in after their rough series against the Cardinals. Somebody must have flipped the script. It was Kansas City that came out swinging from the start, with Gordons leadoff double setting up an RBI double by Mike Moustakas when the ball bounced off right fielder Ben Zobrists glove and over his head after he appeared to briefly lose it in the setting sun. Cobb worked through a perfect second inning before coming unglued in the third. It started with Escobars bunt single and a base hit by Gordon, and included a wild pitch that plate umpire Todd Tichenor accidentally kicked away from catcher Jose Molina, allowing both of the runners to advance. Betancourt followed with a two-run single. Billy Butler came to the plate with one out and added a single, and Jeff Francoeur followed with an RBI single in which Butler was thrown out trying to reach third. Hosmer contributed an RBI single, and Salvador Perez added another run-scoring single, though he was cut down to end the inning after making a wide turn around first. The inning ended after five runs on seven singles in a span of only eight batters. The Royals added another run on Betancourts sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Hosmer went deep in the eighth, though both runs were moot the way Hochevar was dealing. He got some help from double plays in the first and seventh innings, but otherwise took care of things himself. He worked a perfect second and sixth, and came back from consecutive base hits to start the fifth with three consecutive strikeouts. It was the first time he had gone eight innings since last Sept. 3 against Cleveland. This time, Hochevar managed to finish things off. "I dont think you ever have it figured out, because hitters adjust, the game is always changing," he said. "I know what Im focusing on now, though, and thats going to be consistent." Notes: Hochevar had been 0-4 at home this season. ... Rays 1B Carlos Pena went 0 for 3, dropping his average to .197. DH Hideki Matsui went 0 for 4 and is hitting .159. ... Royals RHP Roman Colon was assigned outright to Triple-A Omaha. ... LHP Matt Moore starts Tuesday night for Tampa Bay. LHP Bruce Chen goes for Kansas City. ... The game time was 2 hours, 17 minutes. Cheap Jerseys  From China . The 23-year-old Lander split the season between the Oilers and their American Hockey League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Barons. 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Kole Calhoun drew a bases-loaded walk from reliever Brian Matusz in the eighth inning after a tying RBI double by Erick Aybar, and the Angels pulled out a 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night. "Koles developed into a player thats very comfortable in the batters box against righties or lefties, and hes going to give you that tough at-bat," manager Mike Scioscia said. "Hes going to grind it out every which way, no matter what the situation is. He did a good job with the bases loaded. If he got a pitch in the zone, youre confident hes going to put a good swing on it. He didnt get one this time and took his walk. That was a great at-bat." The Angels, who came in leading the majors in runs scored, stranded two runners in scoring position in the first, fifth and sixth innings. The Angels were 0 for 12 in those situations Wednesday, and 3 for 25 during the three-game series. Weaver (11-6) allowed two runs and six hits through eight innings, striking out six and walking none before the Angels recorded their major league-best 31st come-from-behind win. The right-hander won his fourth straight decision. "My fastball command has been pretty good the last couple of games, and I feel like Im getting stronger every time out," Weaver said. "So I just want to keep working on it and keep establishing it because it sets up everything else. It was nice to keep us in it, limit the pitch count early and get deep in the game. Then the offence took care of the rest later on." Orioles right-hander Chris Tillman allowed a run and five hits over six innings, stranded seven runners in scoring position and picked off another at second base before handing a 2-1 lead to Tommy Hunter. Josh Hamilton led off the eighth with a bloop single off Hunter (2-2) and came all the way around on Aybars double to left-centre. A two-out intentional walk to Efren Navarro and another walk to Chris Iannetta loaded the bases for Calhoun, who walked on a 3-1 pitch. "I dont think it really got away from me. I thought I pitched pretty well," Hunter said. "I didnt feel like I was juust missing.dddddddddddd I felt like I was making pretty quality pitches and they just didnt swing at them. They got a hit and a couple of walks. Thats the way the story unfolded tonight." Huston Street pitched a hitless ninth for his first save since joining the Angels last Friday in a trade with the San Diego Padres. Baltimore took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when David Lough singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Adam Jones flare to short right field. Eight of the Orioles 10 runs in the series came with two outs. Ryan Flaherty, starting at third base for the second straight game because of Manny Machados stiff back, made a diving backhanded stop of Mike Trouts first-inning grounder behind the bag but couldnt get the throw to first in time. Trout scored on Albert Pujols single high off the 18-foot wall in right-centre. "Thats a do-or-die play with him," Flaherty said of Trouts infield hit. "When he hits a ball like that youve got to hope he trips in order to get him out." Pujols RBI was his 31st in his last 34 games and 66th this season. The three-time NL MVP had at least 100 RBIs in 10 of his first 11 big league seasons. The only exception was 2011, when he had 99. "Alberts important to us. We dont need him to carry us, but we need him to do what hes capable of. And were seeing it," Scioscia said. "Alberts last 50 at-bats, I think youre able to see that hes been able to use the whole field and hes finding that swing. Tonight he drove the ball to right-centre to score Mike and then hit a double down the line." The Orioles tied it in the third on a two-out RBI single by Nick Markakis after Flaherty hit a ground-rule double and tagged up on Nick Hundleys fly ball. NOTES: Pujols cousin, former major league catcher and coach Luis Pujols, currently manages the Orioles Single-A Carolina League farm club in Frederick, Maryland. ... Tillmans 32 victories since July 4, 2012 are the second-most in the majors behind reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer whom the Angels are scheduled to face Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series with Detroit. ... The Angels placed OF Grant Green on the 15-day DL, retroactive to July 21, because of a back strain and recalled 1B/OF C.J. Cron from Triple-A Salt Lake. cheap nfl Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys cheap nfl Jerseys wholesale Jerseys ' ' '