SEATTLE — Last Wednesday, Joe Blanton earned his first win in nearly two years.
The veteran Kansas City Royals pitcher liked it so much, he did it again Monday night.
The 34-year-old journeyman, who wasn’t supposed to be more than a stopgap for a hobbled Kansas City rotation, is looking like a well-placed gamble after turning in his second consecutive solid start Monday in the Royals’ 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Blanton dominated the Mariners to the tune of two hits and one run, on a first-inning Robinson Cano homer, over six-plus innings to earn his second win in as many starts this season.
Blanton struck out seven without issuing a walk. He rebounded from the Cano home run to retire 16 batters in a row before Seattle’s Austin Jackson led off the seventh with a double on what would be Blanton’s final pitch of the night.
“Anytime you can go six innings and not pitch out of the stretch, odds are you had a pretty good game,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, referring to Blanton not having a single runner on first base all night.
For Blanton, the performance served as further validation that his decision to come out of retirement was the right one. He gave up the game after the 2013 season, came back for a brief stint in Oakland’s minor league system in 2014, then decided to sign a minor league deal with the Royals before spring training this year to give it one last shot.
Blanton opened the season at Triple-A Omaha, got called up to help out in Kansas City’s bullpen, then found himself back in a starting role when the Royals’ rotation lost Jason Vargas and Yordano Ventura to injuries in the span of a week.
Blanton’s first start was a five-inning, one-run performance against the Milwaukee Brewers that resulted in his first win since late June 2013. He followed that up with an even more impressive start Monday night.
“Being able to get back (to the big leagues) was pretty much the pinnacle,” he said. “Now I’m just riding it out, enjoying it.
“I definitely appreciate it more. When I quit, I thought that was it.”