St. Petersburg, Fla. ? Lou Piniella wasn’t around to see his team lose in extra innings.

Ruben Gotay hit an RBI grounder in the 10th inning and the Kansas City Royals beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7-6, Wednesday.

Piniella was ejected in the second by plate umpire Mike Winters for arguing balls and strikes. After being tossed, the Tampa Bay manager came out of the dugout, argued briefly with Winters, then proceeded to kick dirt three times onto the plate.

“Today’s game, I sat right back here (in his office) and watched it on TV from the second inning on,” Piniella said. “Had an egg roll and a cold beer, and I watched the ballgame.”

Piniella has been ejected twice his season and 56 times as a manager. He has been thrown out 70 times overall during his major-league career.

The latest ejection stemmed from Tampa Bay’s Aubrey Huff being called out looking at strike three in the first.

“I was talking to the umpire about the at-bat Huff had in the first inning when he called him out on a couple pitches,” Piniella said. “I was reminded that you can’t talk about replays because I had looked at them on the replays. So that’s why I got kicked out.”

David DeJesus homered and drove in three runs for the Royals, who are 11-10 since Aug. 31.

“We’re playing better,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “We’re doing the little things we’re suppose to do.”

Tampa Bay’s Matt Diaz hit his first major-league homer.

“It’s a little bittersweet,” Diaz said. “Would have liked to win the game.”

Calvin Pickering opened the 10th with a double off Jorge Sosa (4-6) and pinch-runner Wilton Guerrero went to third on Desi Relaford’s sacrifice bunt. After Dee Brown was hit by a pitch, Guerrero scored on Gotay’s grounder to short.

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Mike MacDougal (1-1) worked a scoreless ninth. Jeremy Affeldt pitched the 10th for his 13th save in 16 opportunities.

Kansas City starter Darrell May didn’t figure in the decision and remains one loss away from tying Paul Splittorf’s team record of 19 set in 1974. May, who is 9-18, gave up five runs and eight hits over six innings. He is winless in seven starts, including six losses.

“Fortunately we scored more than they did,” May said. “The team won, and that’s all that matters.”

The announced crowd at Tropicana Field was 8,392. The actual turnout appeared to be between 1,000 and 2,000. The start time was moved up from 7:15 p.m. to 12:15 because the Devil Rays will travel to New York to make up a game.