Kansas City, Mo. ? Just about anything would have been an improvement over Vin Mazzaro’s previous big league outing.

Mazzaro yielded six runs on eight hits and three walks in five innings of the Kansas City Royals’ 8-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. He served up Adam Lind’s homer in a three-run first, but regrouped and kept the Royals in the game.

Mazzaro (0-1), just recalled from Triple-A Omaha, was making his first big league appearance since giving up 14 runs on 11 hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings against Cleveland on May 16. The last pitcher to give up at least 14 runs in less than three innings was Ed Doheny of the New York Giants on June 29, 1899.

“After the first inning I settled down pretty good,” Mazzaro said. “It was an OK outing. It could have been better. I thought I made a good pitch to Lind, a changeup. He waited well and hit it a long way.”

After the debacle against the Indians, Mazzaro was optioned to Omaha. He put together three solid starts in the Pacific Coast League to earn a chance at redemption.

“I went down to Omaha and figured some things out,” Mazzaro said. “I was pitching pretty well.”

But he wasn’t good enough Tuesday to earn a victory in his return to the majors.

“Vin was OK,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “There were three or four plays where we didn’t help him out much. With a little more help his line would have been better. We just didn’t play a very good fundamental baseball game.”

Lind and J.P. Arencibia each hit a two-run homer to lead the Blue Jays.

Yunel Escobar scored the first Blue Jays run with the help of two Kansas City errors. Escobar singled, stole second, moved to third on catcher Matt Treanor’s throwing error and came home on center fielder Melky Cabrera’s throwing error.

Arencibia hit his 10th homer, which ranks second among big league rookies, in the eighth with Lind aboard.

Lind also drove in a run in the fifth when his sacrifice fly scored Mike McCoy to hike the Blue Jays’ advantage to 6-2. McCoy doubled home Jayson Nix with the first run of the inning.

Escobar left after three innings with a bruised left quadriceps after being kneed in the thigh on his steal in the first inning. He was replaced by McCoy.

Blue Jays rookie right-hander Kyle Drabek (4-4), who failed to get out of the first inning in his previous start, a loss against Cleveland, labored through 5 1/3 innings to pick up the victory. He gave up five runs on nine hits, three walks and four wild pitches.

“There are some good things I can take from it,” Drabek said. “We never would have got the win if it wasn’t for the rest of the team. They were scoring and making plays for me. I tried to keep us in the game, but that last inning got a little bit wild. It was another game I would go 3-2 to most batters or start 2-0 and have to come back. It seems like it keeps happening. It needs to change.”

Rookie left-hander Luis Perez replaced Drabek and threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings, extending his shutout streak to 10 innings. Jon Rauch worked the ninth for his seventh save in nine chances.

Jeff Francoeur drove in the first three Kansas City runs with two singles and a sacrifice fly.

Rookie first baseman Eric Hosmer had two singles, extending his hitting streak to a career-high nine games. He also walked and scored two runs.

Cabrera had two hits and drove in a run.