TORONTO (AP) — Salvador Perez drove in two runs, Seth Lugo gave up one run in five effective innings, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-3 on Tuesday night to extend their winning streak to nine games.
The last time the Kansas City Royals won nine straight was in July 2017.
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Kansas City Royals second baseman Michael Massey (19) throws to first during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals' Nick Loftin (12) celebrates with his team after scoring against the Toronto Blue Jays during sixth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo (67) works against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez (13) grounds into a double play as Carter Jensen, not shown, scores against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Lugo (6-7) allowed six hits while striking out five to help the Royals take the first game of the three-game series.
Perez drove in the first run of the game despite grounding into a double play, then tacked on a go-ahead RBI single in the fifth for a 2-1 Kansas City lead. Kyle Isbel added insurance with an RBI sacrifice bunt, and Carter Jensen had a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
John Rave capped the scoring for the Royals with an RBI single in the ninth inning.
Max Scherzer (1-7) worked five innings, surrendering two runs on four hits for the Blue Jays. He struck out four and walked five while tying a season-high with 92 pitches. Scherzer is now within nine strikeouts of Gaylord Perry for ninth in major league history.
Jesús Sánchez scored Toronto's first run on a sacrifice fly in the first inning, tying the game 1-1. Nathan Lukes hit a two-run single in the ninth, but was thrown out while trying to reach second base to end the game.
Royals second baseman Michael Massey left the game in the fifth inning after hitting his head on the turf while making a throw.
Royals' RHP Randy Dobnak (2-1, 1.58 ERA) takes the mound for game two of the series on Wednesday while the Blue Jays have yet to announce a starter.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Kansas City Royals second baseman Michael Massey (19) throws to first during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals' Nick Loftin (12) celebrates with his team after scoring against the Toronto Blue Jays during sixth inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals pitcher Seth Lugo (67) works against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez (13) grounds into a double play as Carter Jensen, not shown, scores against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP)
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, as they gathered for Sunday dinner at a home outside Billings, Montana, weeks after his parents asked him to move out, a family member told The Associated Press.
Brad Ireland, whose former wife and two children were among the dead, identified the shooter as 44-year-old Alan Smith. Smith's parents, who were also killed, had asked him to move out, but he returned on Sunday and opened fire, Ireland said.
The victims represented four generations of the blended family, ranging from a great-grandmother in her 90s who used a wheelchair to a 7-year-old girl, according to Jennifer Mercer, a neighbor and family friend who set up an online fundraiser to help cover funeral costs and other expenses, and was authorized to release these details.
Police responded to the home on Sunday evening and heard gunshots coming from out back, just before the house was completely engulfed in flames. Investigators confirmed Tuesday there were eight victims, including four children, and that the suspect had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and later died.
The investigation has been complicated by concerns about the structural integrity of the house after the fire burned it to its foundation, said Jeff Stovall, a spokesperson for the Billings Police Department.
Firefighters fought the blaze until around 1 a.m. Monday, according to Billings Fire Department Chief Matt Hoppel. The home is in a subdivision outside of city limits that’s not required to have fire hydrants.
Efforts to fight the fire were delayed until the site was secure, allowing the blaze to tear through the home.
Among those killed were Ireland’s ex-wife, Megan Ghekiere, and their two children, Owen Ireland, 13, and Chloe Ireland, 7. Also killed were Ghekiere’s two stepchildren with her current husband: Landon Ghekiere, 15, and Charlotte Ghekiere, 12.
“The one thing we do know is that Charlotte was the hero,” Mercer said. “Charlotte called 911 and she tried to save her family. And that’s something the family does want out there.”
She described the family as “very loving and close,” and said the children all got along and that their parents remained amicable even after divorcing.
“I feel like our entire community is devastated, even people that never knew any of them,” Mercer said.
The Smith family was originally from the Seattle area. Ireland said that after he and Megan Ghekiere divorced six years ago, she moved to Montana with their children. That's where she met the man who would become her second husband, Adam Ghekiere, who was working and not at the home when the shooting occurred.
Her parents, Dana and Barb Smith, soon followed, buying a house in Billings near their daughter’s home. Evelyn Smith, Dana’s elderly mother, lived in a nearby retirement community, Ireland said.
Alan Smith moved in with his parents in Montana and stayed with them for years before being asked to move out a couple weeks ago, Ireland said. He unexpectedly returned to the home on Sunday evening, where the Smiths had gathered for a weekly family dinner.
Alan Smith killed his grandmother, his parents, his younger sister and the four children before setting the house on fire, Ireland said. He tried to flee before being confronted by law enforcement, he said.
“There were many red flags and many people spoke out,” said Ireland, who lives in Arizona. “No one listened.”
Alan Smith was a “hermit” who spent most of his days in his room on his computer, Ireland said.
“No one knew what he did in there 24/7,” he said.
Alan Smith had attended Eastern Washington University but had been unable to find or hold a job. A search of criminal records in Montana and Washington found no record Alan Smith had ever been arrested or charged with a crime.
Ireland said that to his knowledge Alan Smith had never been violent, though he could be verbally abusive.
Friends of the victims have set up two GoFundMe accounts to raise money on behalf of Adam Ghekiere and his ex-wife, Erica Schneider.
Adam Ghekiere, who works at the airport in Billings, told the AP that he heard over a dispatch radio about an active shooting. After calling each member of his family, he raced across town to the Smith home.
When he got there, the house was ablaze, and two hours later, he learned his wife and children had been killed. His children weren't supposed to be there because family dinner was usually on Friday, he said.
“I don’t think he expected my kids to be there,” Ghekiere said, referring to his brother-in-law. “Monster isn’t even enough to describe what he did.”
Ghekiere said police confirmed his daughter, Charlotte, was the one who dialed 911 from inside the house.
“I keep hearing her quote to me every time I would say ‘I love you’ and she would say ‘I love you more,’” he said.
The shootings were the 22nd mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by the AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
Fifteen of those have stemmed from domestic disputes, which is higher than the average of about 50% of U.S. mass killings, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who manages the database.
The Montana shooting is the deadliest in the U.S. since April, when a Louisiana father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, and shot and wounded his wife and another woman.
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Biesecker reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix contributed.
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Schuettler is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Investigators work at the scene Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, where a family was killed and a house burned in Billings, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
A house where a family was killed is seen, Tuesday Aug. 25, 2026, in Billings Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
Investigators work at the scene Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, where a family was killed and the house burned in Billings, Mont. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
