"The bridge to closer Joakim Soria appeared to be crumbling two weeks ago.

Kyle Farnsworth and Robinson Tejeda were pitching well, but Farnsworth left via trade and Tejeda was placed on the disabled list. Luckily, something old (Blake Wood) and something new (Jesse Chavez) wedded the starters to Soria.

"A lot of times, it's been my experience that if you provided an opportunity for guys, they'll step up," manager Ned Yost said. "An opportunity is a wonderful thing for people. Given a fair opportunity, you'll find somebody to step up and somebody can do the job."

Wood previously held the eighth-inning role, but his ERA ballooned to 6.51 from 3.96 over four outings in July. He was altering his mechanics to speed up his delivery with runners on base. That caused his pitches to flatten out.

"It wasn't a slump," Yost said. "It was an adjustment we had to make in his delivery. We got him back to a good, strong downhill delivery. He's right back to where he was before."

Wood had allowed just one earned run over 10 1/3 innings — which dropped his ERA to 4.97, nearly 1.60 runs — before allowing two runs in one-third of an inning Thursday.

Chavez — the something new after coming over from Atlanta in the Farnsworth trade — has been effective in getting the ball to Wood. He has a 2.16 ERA over 8 1/3 innings while predominantly pitching in the seventh inning when the Royals lead.

"I don't look at it as a role," he said. "I look at it as another inning. The score is 0-0. If I keep it at 0-0, I'm doing my job. I just get the ball to Woody, I did my job. We all expect him to do his and Jack (Soria) to keep being Jack.""