PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mason Rudolph guided a long first-half touchdown drive to perhaps nudge ahead of Josh Dobbs in the race to be the backup behind Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 17-7 on Saturday night.

Rudolph finished 10 of 15 for 77 yards while Dobbs completed 6 of 11 for 95 yards with a red-zone interception on a night the Steelers (2-0) opted to keep several key starters on the sideline, from quarterback Roethlisberger to Pro Bowl offensive linemen David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey to rookie linebacker Devin Bush.

Kansas City coach Andy Reid suggested Patrick Mahomes would play most of the first half.

Not quite.

The reigning NFL MVP — who directed a touchdown in his lone drive in Kansas City’s preseason opener last week — did little during two series of work following a thunderstorm that forced the opening kickoff to be pushed back nearly an hour.

Mahomes completed just 2 of 5 passes for 11 yards, a far cry from his previous visit to Heinz Field, when he threw for six touchdowns in a Week 2 win last September that served as a harbinger of the season to come.

Mahomes’ best play during his cameo may have been his decision to slide during an 8-yard scramble, something he didn’t do a week ago when he lowered his shoulder against Cincinnati rather than step out of bounds.

Chad Henne found Mecole Hardman for a 17-yard touchdown late in the first half for Kansas City (1-1), which managed a lone touchdown a week after putting up 38 against the Bengals. Hardman, a second-round pick, has two touchdowns in two weeks and his rapid emergence could give Reid another option to play with in what could be the NFL’s most potent offense.

Pittsburgh chose to give the 37-year-old Roethlisberger the night off. Rudolph, a third-round pick a year ago who is hoping to supplant Dobbs as the top backup, was given the start instead. Playing with a group that included Pro Bowl running back James Conner and star wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, Rudolph struggled early to gain some momentum.

It wasn’t until Rudolph found himself playing with the reserves that he started to get going. He directed a 14-play, 89-yard drive in the second quarter, a series that ended with a 14-yard sprint to the end zone by Jaylen Samuels.

Dobbs started off brilliantly, hitting Washington for a 40-yard gain. He couldn’t sustain the momentum, thanks in part to an interception in the end in which he overthrew Diontae Johnson. The ball sailed into the arms of Kansas City’s Charvarius Ward to cut short a scoring chance late in the first half.

Johnson, a third-round pick, ended up scoring in the fourth quarter when he made a diving grab in the end zone on a heave from fourth-stringer Devlin Hodges.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Pete Alonso’s error at first base in the fourth inning led to Kansas City’s only run of the night and put the New York Mets behind.

So when he got a chance to come through for his teammates with the bases loaded in the seventh, Alonso didn’t want to fail. After narrowly missing out on a grand slam, the rookie slugger settled for a two-run single that put Jacob deGrom and the Mets ahead Saturday in a 4-1 victory over the Royals. That evened the weekend  series between the teams at one game apiece.

“Definitely when guys are on base, it definitely helps me,” Alonso said. “Like OK, I put us in a little hole earlier in the game, this is a chance at redemption.”

Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner, deGrom (8-7) gave up three hits while striking out five over seven innings. Since the All-Star break, he has permitted just five earned runs in 45 innings for a 1.00 ERA.

“That’s classic Jake deGrom,” Alonso said. “He’s our guy, he’s a Cy Young winner. Everything was on for him today and having a guy like that go out there and pitch the way he did is huge.”

Alonso and Juan Lagares both finished with three hits. Lagares had an RBI triple in the eighth for the Mets, who are two games out in a crowded race for the second NL wild card.

The bottom three batters in New York’s lineup went 5 for 11 and combined to score all four runs.

“When they step up, you’re going to win games,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. “Sometimes the top of your order will carry you, but the games that the bottom of the order does what they did tonight, it really helps you win.”

Royals starter Jakob Junis (8-11) allowed a one-out single to Lagares in the seventh and hit No. 9 batter Aaron Altherr with a pitch. Kansas City manager Ned Yost brought in Jake Newberry, who walked Amed Rosario to load the bases.

Yost again went to his bullpen, this time to submarine left-hander Tim Hill. He struck out pinch-hitter J.D. Davis on three pitches, but couldn’t finish off Alonso. He barely missed a grand slam down the right field line when a crew chief review determined the ball sliced just foul, upholding the initial call on the field.

“Usually I have a pretty good look at it, but honestly, I had no idea,” Alonso said. “I just left it up to replay and they thought it was foul. At that point, it’s really all I could do.”

With the runners going on a full-count pitch, Alonso then fisted a grounder up the middle to drive in Lagares and Altherr for a 3-1 lead. Second baseman Whit Merrifield made a sliding stop in shallow center and fired home to try to get Altherr, but Hill cut off the throw.

“It was not the result I wanted,” Hill said. “I wanted a groundball, I got the groundball, weak contact. Just wish it would have been hit at somebody.”

In the bottom half, deGrom got out of trouble with the help of a double-play ball. Lagares’ triple to right field in the eighth drove in Luis Guillorme.

Justin Wilson threw a scoreless inning and Seth Lugo worked a perfect ninth for his third save.

Joe Panik hit an RBI single for New York in the fifth.

Junis dealt with traffic on the basepaths all night, but managed to work around seven hits — all singles — a walk and two hit batters to allow just three runs in 6 1/3 innings. His defense turned two double plays behind him to help him out of jams in the second and fifth, but the Royals’ bullpen couldn’t finish off the seventh inning for him.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t score more runs for him. I thought he threw the ball extremely well,” Yost said.

Hunter Dozier had two of Kansas City’s three hits, his second straight multihit game.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Mike Montgomery is settling back into being a starting pitcher again, and the results are showing.

The left-hander outdueled Noah Syndergaard as the Kansas City Royals ended their scoreless drought Friday night in a 4-1 victory over the New York Mets.

In his first three starts after being acquired from the Chicago Cubs in a trade, Montgomery was 0-2 with a 7.94 ERA. In his last three outings, he is 2-1 and has allowed just two earned runs in 18 innings.

“I feel a lot more comfortable,” said Montgomery, a reliever with the Cubs. “I’m finally kind of stretched out to be a starter full length and I felt good tonight.”

The hottest team in the majors until this week, the Mets have lost four of five after a 15-1 stretch propelled them into the crowded NL wild-card race. They are two games out of a playoff spot.

New York dropped the series opener at fourth-place Kansas City (44-78) in a rematch of the 2015 World Series won by the Royals in five games.

“For over two weeks now we’ve been getting that big hit,” Mets left fielder J.D. Davis said. “And during this road trip it just seems like here and there we haven’t been getting that big hit. That’s just baseball.”

Montgomery (3-5) pitched six strong innings and allowed just one unearned run on five hits while striking out three and walking two. It was the second consecutive start in which he didn’t permit an earned run, following seven smooth innings Saturday in a 7-0 win over Detroit.

“Montgomery did a nice job setting up that cutter in, changeups down and away, just getting ahead of us,” Davis said.

Ian Kennedy tossed a scoreless ninth for his 21st save in 24 opportunities. He retired Amed Rosario on a bases-loaded grounder to end it.

The Royals, coming off back-to-back shutout losses to the St. Louis Cardinals, finally snapped a 22-inning scoreless string in the fifth. And it was the bottom three guys in the lineup who came through. After Ryan O’Hearn singled, Meibrys Viloria and Nicky Lopez followed with consecutive RBI doubles off Syndergaard to give Kansas City a 2-1 lead.

The Royals added a couple of insurance runs in the eighth when Brett Phillips drew a bases-loaded walk from Edwin Díaz, and Bubba Starling singled home a run.

“They were huge,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. “Great at-bat by Phillips, great at-bat by Bubba to get them. We knew it was going to be tight, but you sure want a little breathing room going into the last inning.”

Outside of the fifth, Syndergaard (8-6) gave up little else. He threw six innings and allowed just the two runs on five hits with six strikeouts, snapping a streak of six consecutive starts of at least seven innings pitched. But after an RBI single from Michael Conforto in the third, the Mets couldn’t generate anything else on offense.

After a brief rain rolled through in the first inning, Syndergaard struggled gripping the ball as the humidity soared.

“Just had to battle the elements out there. I don’t know what it is about humidity, but we do not get along,” he said.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cardinals rookie Dakota Hudson kept quickly scraping through scoreless innings, even as his Royals counterpart was putting together a no-hit bid that was starting to set social media ablaze.

St. Louis eventually cracked Brad Keller in spectacular fashion.

Kansas City never did figure out Hudson.

The 24-year-old right-hander wound up throwing six innings of five-hit ball, and the Cardinals bullpen finished off a 6-0 victory Wednesday night for their second consecutive shutout of their cross-state rival and their eighth straight victory at Kauffman Stadium.

“This is a team with a lot of ability. It’s a deep team with a ton of experience,” said St. Louis manager Mike Shildt, whose team climbed back over the Chicago Cubs for first place in the NL Central.

Hudson (11-6) allowed runners to reach every inning but the third, but he kept his poise and continued to get timely double-plays, groundballs and fly outs. Hudson struck out five and walked two as the Cardinals won for the 13th time in his last 16 starts.

“He controlled a lot of counts,” Shildt said. “He was very, very effective.”

So was Keller (7-13), who issued three walks and was victimized by an early error but didn’t allow a hit until Marcell Ozuna’s sharp single leading off the seventh. It began a run of five consecutive base hits that not only knocked Keller from the game but ultimately resulted in a five-run frame.

“We kept our confidence,” said Paul DeJong, who later homered off the Royals bullpen to become the first shortstop in Cardinals history with two 20-plus homer seasons. “It was now-or-never for us.”

Keller never thought he was pitching particularly well.

“I was grinding to throw strikes. I wasn’t putting the ball where I wanted to,” he said. “I felt like my breaking ball hit the grass every time I threw it. I just let my nature take over.”

The Royals, who were blanked 2-0 on Tuesday night, never got a runner past second base. Cheslor Cuthbert grounded out to strand two in the first, Nicky Lopez stranded runners in the second and fifth, and Bubba Starling grounded out to leave Ryan O’Hearn standing on second base in the fourth.

The Cardinals were following a similar roadmap until Ozuna’s single in the seventh.

DeJong and Matt Carpenter followed with hits to send Keller to the showers, and Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong followed with singles of their own. By the time Randy Arozarena singled for his first major league hit and Dexter Fowler hit a sacrifice fly, the Cardinals had taken a 5-0 lead.

DeJong added his mammoth homer in the eighth inning to put an exclamation mark on the win.

“I had 19 last year,” DeJong said. “I’d rather have had like, 16, but it’s pretty amazing.”

The Cardinals defeated the Royals 2-0 Tuesday night.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The two words that Cardinals manager Mike Shildt kept using to describe the reasons behind Jack Flaherty’s phenomenal pitching success since the All-Star break were conviction and command.

The Royals probably have a few choice words to describe Flaherty, too.

The right-hander tossed seven innings of three-hit ball in yet another dominant performance Tuesday night, and Tommy Edman and Paul Goldschmidt drove in the only runs as St. Louis edged Kansas City 2-0 to open a two-game series between the cross-state rivals.

“That’s been Jack. That’s who he’s been,” Shildt said. “Just outstanding pitching.”

Flaherty (6-6) struck out seven with a lone walk in his sixth stingy start, though he has just two wins to show for them. He’s allowed 20 hits with 50 strikeouts and 0.70 ERA over that span.

“He’s been absolutely on fire lately,” Edman said. “Jack was awesome again, as usual.”

Flaherty headed for the showers after throwing 110 pitches, and the St. Louis bullpen nailed down the win. Andrew Miller worked around a single in the eighth and retired Alex Gordon in the ninth, and Carlos Martínez got the final two outs, completing the four-hitter while earning his 13th save.

Glenn Sparkman (3-8) did everything the Royals asked over six sharp innings. He allowed two runs, one of them earned, but still hasn’t won since a July 16 shutout of the White Sox.

“With every start I’m getting a little better. Still shaky in the first through third,” he said. “But overall I felt pretty good today. Definitely a lot of things to work on still.”

The most spirit the woebegone Royals showed all night came when Kolten Wong legged out an infield single in the fifth, and manager Ned Yost complained about interference on the throw. His heated exchange with plate umpire Pat Hoberg escalated until first base ump Greg Gibson tossed him.

It was the third time this season Yost has been ejected.

“In all fairness,” Yost said, “they gave me every opportunity to stop arguing.”

Both Cardinals runs were scored in scrappy fashion. The first came when Dexter Fowler reached on an error in the first, advanced on a groundout and scored on Goldschmidt’s sacrifice fly, and the second came on Edman’s single in the third — just before he was caught between bases to end the inning.

The way Flaherty was going, that was all St. Louis needed.

He gave up a two-out double to Hunter Dozier and intentionally walked Jorge Soler in the first, but got Cheslor Cuthbert to pop out and end the inning. Flaherty proceeded to retire 12 more in succession before Nicky Lopez led off the sixth inning with a base hit.

Flaherty wound up getting a double play and striking out Dozier to end that inning.

“His fastball’s got life. Slider is tight. Good arm action with pitches,” the Royals’ Whit Merrifield said. “He locates well, moves it around. He doesn’t miss a whole lot. When he does miss it’s not in the zone. So he does a good job of keeping you on your toes.”

DETROIT (AP) — Comerica Park’s spacious outfield has frustrated hitters many times over the years.

It hasn’t been a big deal for Hunter Dozier and Jorge Soler this season.

Dozier and Jorge Soler each homered twice Sunday, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 10-2 for a split of the four-game series between the worst teams in the AL Central.

“They’ve got the type of power that makes any park look small,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “They are both swinging the bat extremely well right now.”

It was Dozier’s third career multihomer game, all of which have come on the current road trip. He hit two against the Twins on Aug. 2, and then duplicated the feat Thursday in the series opener in Detroit.

“I feel really good in the box right now, and I’ve felt that was for a while,” he said. “Today was a good day to hit and we both see the ball well here.”

Soler went deep four times in the final three games of the series. He now has 35 homers, three behind Mike Moustakas’ team record of 38.

“Obviously, the record is right there and everyone likes to break records, but I’m not thinking about that,” he said through an interpreter. “I’m recognizing pitches as soon as it comes out of the pitcher’s hand. That’s the key.”

Whit Merrifield led off the game with a home run for the second time in three days. The trio combined for 10 homers in the series.

“I don’t think we ever established the inside corner against them, so they were coming to the plate looking for stuff on the outside half,” Tigers catcher John Hicks said. “Dozier and Soler are big, strong guys, so if they can get something out there, they will hit it a long way.”

The Royals won their second in a row after losing six of seven. Last-place Detroit fell to 7-23 since the All-Star break.

“It is disappointing to win the first two games of the series and only end up with a split,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We just didn’t do enough the last two days.”

Jakob Junis (8-10) improved to 7-1 against the Tigers, allowing two runs and six hits in six innings. His seven wins against Detroit in the last three seasons are tied with Corey Kluber for the most in the majors.

“I didn’t feel great out there, but I located pitches when I needed them,” he said. “They took advantage of some mistakes early, but I was able to keep a lot of runs off the board and let the offense do what they did.”

Daniel Norris (3-10) allowed three homers in three innings, leaving the Tigers down 4-2.

“I didn’t have much of anything today,” he said. “I had a blister that made me adjust my changeup grip and I never got it to work.”

Merrifield led off with his 14th homer after he opened Friday’s 5-2 loss with an inside-the-park homer against Edwin Jackson. Norris retired the next batter, but Dozier hit his third homer of the series into the Royals’ bullpen in left-center.

Niko Goodrum made it 2-1 in the bottom of the first with his 11th homer, but Soler responded with a two-run drive in the third for his 34th homer.

Soler finished with three hits and five RBIs. He homered again in the eighth against Drew VerHagen and hit a two-run single in the ninth.

HOMER HEAVEN FOR THE ROYALS

Dozier and Soler each have six home runs at Comerica Park this season, more than any Tiger other than JaCoby Jones (seven). Merrifield has four, one more than Miguel Cabrera.