Member » ted into the challenge system," Torre said. Mo

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Fernando Rodney was good for another dozen pitches and the Seattle Mariners were good for a sweep. Rodney, working for the fourth straight day, earned his 21st save in 23 chances as the Mariners defeated the Kansas City Royals 2-1 on Sunday for a three-game sweep. Rodney, who had thrown 46 pitches in the previous three days, got saves in all three games at Kansas City. He last got into four consecutive games on May 27-30, 2013, for Tampa Bay. "It was no problem," Rodney said. "I said I feel ready. I got warmed up and felt good, felt loose. Thats why Im a reliever." "Sometimes early in the season you have a little problem with getting loose. When the weather warms up it helps get me a little more loose," he said. Rodney dispatched the Royals on 12 pitches, giving up a two-out single to pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas before striking out Pedro Ciriaco to preserve the one-run lead. "Its simple," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said on summoning Rodney once again. "I had a talk with him and he felt good. Hes worked very, very efficiently, and he was very efficient today as well. He has not thrown a lot of pitches. Hes definitely off tomorrow. He asked me if he could go to the Dominican, but I told him no." Rookie Roenis Elias pitched neatly into the seventh inning and Mike Zunino homered for the Mariners, who have won 18 of their past 26 road games. After winning 10 straight to move into first place in the AL Central, the Royals have dropped four in a row, three of them by 2-1 scores. "Were playing fine, but just an offensive down turn a little bit," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "You go through the ups and downs. A four-game losing streak right when you had put together a nice 10-game winning streak, its tough." Elias (7-5), a 25-year-old left-hander from Cuba, limited the Royals to one run and five singles over 6 2-3 innings. He struck out five, walked two and improved to 4-1 in June. "Everything was working," Elias said through a translator. Zunino hit his ninth home run, tops among AL catchers. He connected off Yordano Ventura (5-6) leading off the seventh to break a 1-all tie. "Even though things arent going our way right now, I think were playing really good," Ventura said with teammate Bruce Chen acting as interpreter. Zunino led off the fifth with a double and scored on Willie Bloomquists two-out double. "We stepped up to the challenge and were able take three from them," Bloomquist said. "It shows what were able to do when we play well. Those guys are a very, very good baseball team. Granted, a bounce here or there and it could have come out differently." Ventura (5-6) had won his previous three starts. "He hung a breaking pretty good (to Zunino)," Yost said. "Outside of that, he pitched a great ball game. Anytime you go seven innings and give up two runs you give your team a chance to win a game thats a great job." The Royals scored their run in the second, which Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez opened with singles. Justin Maxwells sacrifice fly brought home Gordon. Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar left in the seventh with a bruised left shin. He was hit in the second by a pitch. X-rays were negative. The Mariners won a challenge in the seventh when Ciriaco was ruled safe at first for a bunt single. After a reliever that took over 3 minutes, the call was overturned and Ciriaco was out. NOTES: Royals 3B Danny Valencia, who missed 19 games with a muscle strain in his left hand, was activated from the disabled list. He went 0-for-3 with a strikeout. The Royals optioned RHP Louis Coleman to Triple-A Omaha as they opted to go with a 12-man staff. ... Mariners ace RHP Felix Hernandez, who starts Monday at home against Boston, is 4-1 with a 1.33 ERA in his past seven starts. The lone loss was 1-0 on June 18 at Texas when he allowed three hits, walked none and struck out 10. ... Seattle starters have allowed one run or less in nine of their past 10 games for a 1.50 ERA in that stretch. 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Major League Baseball says its virtually certain all the new systems will be in place for opening day. MLB Executive Vice-President Joe Torre met with general managers Tuesday and said he expects approval from owners, players and umpires by January. "We expect to be all on the same page by the time we need to have it," he said. Virtually all umpires calls other than balls and strikes, checked swings and some foul tips will be reviewable. The system was tested last week during Arizona Fall League games, with two major league umpires reviewing video and making the final call. Owners are expected to give their go-ahead Thursday for funding and then approve the rules when they meet in January. "Im sure theyll do as much testing as they think is feasible, but ultimately theyll probably go with what they have," New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said. "There probably will be bugs. ... It might be a little rough at the beginning, but I think that things will work out thereafter." Baseball started using video review in 2008 but limited it to home run calls -- whether a ball went over a fence or was fair. Under the system thats been in placce, three of the four umpires at a ballpark watched video provided them by MLB.dddddddddddd Starting next year, challenged calls will be reviewed at a central location. "Wed like to have everything clean and be incorporated into the challenge system," Torre said. Most reviews during the Arizona test averaged 1 minute, 40 seconds. Torre expects the new system will be used at some but not all spring training sites. "We have to make sure the managers have a chance to practice with this. They need practice only because its never been done before," he said. "Youre not going to be able to test it everywhere because you just cant put the equipment everywhere." On another matter, Torre said there will be no change to baseballs obstruction rule, which gave St. Louis a controversial 5-4 win over Boston in Game 3 of the World Series last month. Cardinals runner Allen Craig tripped over Boston third baseman Will Middlebrooks in the ninth inning of a tied game and was awarded home plate on obstruction -- intent is not a factor in the obstruction decision by umpires. "I really dont see anything" to be done, Torre said, before adding: "Nobody wants a game to end like that. I dont think thats any secret." ' ' '