A’S POUND ROYALS

5-Run 1st Prelude to 15-1 Beat Down

 

OAKLAND, Aug. 1 (AP) – The Oakland Athletics used their biggest first inning—five runs—of the season as a springboard to a 15-1 pasting of the Kansas City Royals at The Coliseum.  Six A’s batters accrued at least two hits apiece and Oakland rode long balls off the bats of Brandon Moss, Stephen Vogt and Alberto Callaspo to victory.  Starter Sonny Gray took a no-hitter into the sixth inning but settled for allowing a run on two hits over seven strong innings of work, evening his record at 8-8.  It was the 13th win in 16 games for the red hot A’s who hold the best record in the American League and have opened up a 5 ˝ game lead in the West Division.

 

Royals reliever Bruce Chen was asked to “take one for the team” and absorbed a beating, allowing seven runs on eight hits and seven walks over 4-2/3 innings before finally being replaced by Jason Frasor in the ninth.  Chen, trying to spare an already exhausted Kansas City bullpen, took over for Jeremy Guthrie who was knocked out of the game in the third and was charged with eight runs on 10 hits in just 2-1/3 innings of work.

 

Oakland effectively put the game away in the bottom of the opening frame.  One-out singles by John Jaso and Josh Donaldson put runners on first and second and Moss followed with his 13th home run of the season for a 3-0 A’s lead.  Jed Lowrie then singled and Vogt made it 5-0 with his fifth homer of the year.  The five-run first was the biggest opening frame output for the A’s this season.

 

If there was any doubt about the final outcome, Oakland put it to rest in the bottom of the third.  Vogt opened with a walk and Josh Reddick’s single put runners on first and second.  Callaspo popped out but Eric Sogard’s single brought home Vogt and advanced Reddick to third.  Chen replaced Guthrie at that point but walked Fuld to load the bases.  Jaso popped to third for the second out but back-to-back free passes to Donaldson and Moss brought home two more runs to make the score 8-0 before Chen fanned Lowrie to end the inning.

 

The A’s scored two more runs in the fifth and four in the seventh, with Callaspo’s three-run shot in the latter frame being the big blow.  One more tally in the eighth capped Oakland’s scoring.

 

Gray, meanwhile, was on cruise control.  The only Royals baserunner in the first five innings was due to a one-out throwing error by Donaldson in the second, allowing Mike Moustakas to reach base.  Gray had retired 17 of the 18 batters he’d faced when Norichika Aoki lined a two-out double to right-center to end the no-hit bid.  The only Kansas City run came in the seventh when Gray issued consecutive walks to Alex Gordon and Salvador Perez to open the inning and, one out later, Billy Butler singled to left, scoring Gordon.

 

Kansas City is now 13-23 on the season in games decided by at least four runs, the worst winning percentage (.361) in such contests in the AL this year.

 

 

8/1/2014, KC14-Oak14, The Coliseum

 

                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP

2014 Royals            0  0  0  0  0  0  1  0  0     1  4  0     7  2

2014 Athletics         5  0  3  0  2  0  4  1  x    15 18  1    10  0

 

Royals               AB  R  H BI   AVG    Athletics            AB  R  H BI   AVG

Aoki              rf  4  0  1  0  .269    Fuld              cf  5  2  3  0  .292

Infante           2b  4  0  0  0  .255    Jaso              c   5  1  2  0  .278

Gordon,A          lf  3  1  0  0  .230     Norris,De        ph  0  0  0  0  .290

Perez,S           c   3  0  1  0  .276    Donaldson         3b  3  3  2  3  .258

Moustakas         3b  4  0  0  0  .199    Moss              lf  4  2  3  4  .262

Butler,B          1b  3  0  1  1  .236    Lowrie            ss  5  1  3  2  .246

 Hosmer           1b  1  0  0  0  .234    Vogt              1b  4  2  1  2  .285

Ibanez            dh  3  0  0  0  .181    Reddick           rf  4  2  1  0  .298

 Cain,L           ph  0  0  0  0  .274    Callaspo          dh  5  1  2  3  .211

Escobar,A         ss  3  0  0  0  .284    Sogard            2b  4  1  1  1  .243

 Colon,C          ss  1  0  0  0  .385                         39 15 18 15

Dyson,J           cf  3  0  1  0  .246

                     32  1  4  1

 

Royals                           INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Guthrie          L 8-11          2.1 10  8  8  1  1  58  36  3.76

Chen,B                           4.2  8  7  7  7  0 112  56 10.44

Frasor                           1.0  0  0  0  1  0  13   5  2.95

                                 8.0 18 15 15  9  1 183  97

 

Athletics                        INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Gray             W 8-8           7.0  2  1  1  2  1  87  56  2.91

Otero                            1.0  1  0  0  0  0   5   4  2.73

Abad                             1.0  1  0  0  1  1  20  12  2.82

                                 9.0  4  1  1  3  2 112  72

 

KC : Hosmer inserted at 1b in the 7th

     Colon,C inserted at ss in the 7th

     Cain,L batted for Ibanez in the 9th

Oak: Norris,De batted for Jaso in the 8th

     Norris,De moved to c in the 9th

 

E-Donaldson. 2B-Aoki(20), Fuld 2(9), Lowrie(20). 3B-Fuld(5). HR-Moss(13),

Vogt(5), Callaspo(3). RBI-Butler,B(44), Donaldson 3(70), Moss 4(47),

Lowrie 2(50), Vogt 2(20), Callaspo 3(29), Sogard(17). K-Moustakas, Ibanez,

Lowrie. BB-Gordon,A, Perez,S, Cain,L, Fuld, Donaldson 2, Moss 2, Vogt,

Reddick, Sogard, Norris,De. SF-Donaldson.

GWRBI: Moss

Temperature: 78, Sky: cloudy, Wind: out to right at 11 MPH.

Attendance: 35,531

Game Time: 2:53