Kansas City, Mo. ? Mark Redman shed his sleeves and started getting outs.

Redman scattered nine hits in the first four innings before retiring the last 13 batters he faced in pitching eight strong innings as the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Friday night.

“I went from sleeves to no sleeves, right there no more hits,” Redman said and laughed. “Maybe they were seeing the ball with the sleeves. I just had to make an adjustment. If you can do that, you can keep yourself in the ball game.

“I made some adjustments and got the ball down and kept the ball down and tried to eat up a lot of innings because our bullpen was pretty much taxed from yesterday.”

Reggie Sanders hit a two-run tie-breaking double in the eight inning.

“Redman pitched an awesome game,” Sanders said. “He kept them off balance all day long. He started off shaky, but was able to battle back from that and settle down.”

Redman (2-4) struck out four and walked one. He has won back-to-back starts for the first time since May 14-20, 2005.

Ambiorix Burgos worked the ninth to pick his eighth save in 14 opportunities, striking out pinch hitter Greg Norton to end the game with runners on first and third.

“Red had a little tough start in the first inning, but after that he was outstanding,” Royals manager Buddy Bell said. “He’s pitched very well the last couple of times since he’s been back (from the bereavement list), and he’s stabilized our rotation a little bit, gave us a bunch of innings. Burgy came in and always makes it interesting. We’ll take it. I’m begging right now (for wins).”

Devil Rays starter Mark Hendrickson (3-7) had held the Royals to just four singles in the first seven innings. With one out in the eighth, Hendrickson walked John Buck, the Royals’ No. 9 hitter, and David DeJesus singled. Tony Graffanino followed with an RBI single to score pinch-runner Shane Costa to tie the score at 2.

“I’m fighting to get hits,” Graffanino said. “I felt like I hit the ball hard the first three ABs and got nothing to show for it. Right there, I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He threw a cutter in and I got lucky.”

Brian Meadows, who pitched for the Royals in 2000-01, replaced Hendrickson and gave up the two-run double to Sanders to the right-center gap.

“That double felt good,” Sanders said. “I stayed under control. I did what I needed to do in that situation and try not to overswing, just stick to the outside part of the plate and drive it to the gap. I was looking away, for something I could handle and control.”

Hendrickson, who has lost four straight starts, gave up four runs and six hits in 7 1-3 innings, walking three and striking out four.

The Royals snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Devil Rays.

The Devil Rays collected four hits, including two doubles, in the first inning, but managed just one run. Julio Lugo led off the game with a double to left and advanced to third on Carl Crawford’s bunt single. Lugo scored when Jonny Gomes grounded into a double play.

Ty Wiggington singled and Jorge Cantu doubled after the double play, but Aubrey Huff lined out to shortstop to end the inning.

“We had our chances and couldn’t convert,” Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “He (Redman) was throwing everything from the knees to the toes and we couldn’t lay off.”

Gomes singled in the third, stopped at second on Wiggington’s single and scored on Cantu’s two-out single to put the Devil Rays up 2-0. Cantu had three hits for the Devil Rays.

Notes: Royals starting pitchers have won just seven games this season. … CF Crawford played in his 578th career game, passing Fred McGriff and into second place for games by a Devil Ray. Only 3B Huff, 773, has played in more Devil Ray games.