Holland saves day after Davis yields rare HR

TORONTO -- At one point during Wade Davis' outing in the eighth inning of the Royals' 7-6 win over the Blue Jays on Saturday, manager Ned Yost was almost reduced to laughter.

That's how hard the Blue Jays have been crushing the ball in this series.

This time, though, Yost had his secret weapon, Davis, arguably the best reliever in the game, who missed the night before with back tightness, on the mound. Didn't matter.

The Blue Jays got to him, too. Jose Bautista crushed a ball to left field for a homer to cut the Royals' lead to a run. The homer was the first off Davis since August 24, 2013 (Ian Desmond), a span of 125 2/3 innings.

Video: KC@TOR: Bautista rips his second homer of the game

"And then when [Edwin] Encarnacion hit the next one to the wall [for an out] in center, I almost did start laughing," Yost said. "I mean, what can you do?"

Fortunately for Yost, he had another valuable weapon waiting for the ninth -- closer Greg Holland.

"He doesn't panic in those situations," Yost said.

But Holland still had to get smoking-hot Josh Donaldson out with the potential tying and winning runs on first and third. Holland did so with a breaking ball and Donaldson tapped out to third, sealing the win and ending the Royals' three-game skid.

"There's no one in this lineup you really want to face," Holland said. "It's good top to bottom."

Davis said he was still feeling tightness in his back as he worked the eighth.

"It's not too severe," Davis said. "It's one of things that in two or three days it should be gone completely."

Davis didn't seem that dismayed by losing his homerless streak.

"Not really," he said. "I hadn't thought much about it. It was going to happen."

But Davis' heart did get pounding when Encarnacion's ball headed for the center-field wall.