"Zack Greinke closed a disappointing follow-up to his Cy Young season Thursday night by achieving something that eluded him last year and throughout his career.

He beat the Tampa Bay Rays.

Greinke worked seven strong innings in a 3-2 victory that also allows the Royals to offer the modest boast of being better than last year. They improved to 66-93 with three games to go.

They finished last season at 65-97.

Big picture: Does it mean anything that Greinke reasserted himself in his final start?

"No, we know what Zack is," manager Ned Yost said. "It makes us all feel better...we want to win; we want Zack to pitch well. But it wouldn't change anything we're trying to do if he didn't have a good start tonight.

"But believe me, we would have rather had him have the start he had tonight."

What started with Greinke ended with Joakim Soria, who achieved a personal milestone by pitching around a one-out single in the ninth inning for a career-best 43rd save — one better than his 2008 total.

"It's always good to break your own record," he said, "but each one is important. You have to think like that."

Soria also extended two club records by recording his 36th straight successful save and pushing his scoreless innings streak to 23 2/3 . He hasn't allowed a run since July 28, and his ERA is down to 1.53.

"He's unbelievable, isn't he?" catcher Brayan Peña said. "He just makes his pitches."

Soria benefited from a fine running catch by rookie center fielder Jarrod Dyson for the second out. Dyson raced deep into the right-center gap to corral B.J. Upton's drive with a runner on first.

Dyson shrugged it off.

"The way we position guys," he said, "you already know where they're hitting it. That makes my job a lot easier."

Well, yes and no.

"Their little center fielder does a nice job, man," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "He covered some ground tonight. Goodness, he ran some fly patterns, some posts, some deep flags. He covered some ground out there. He was very impressive.""