Kansas City Royals can’t complete sweep, lose 4-0 to A’s in series finale at Oakland
The Kansas City Royals’ win streak couldn’t carry through the weekend without scoring runs.
The visitors stranded 11 men on base and went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position on Sunday, and that proved too much to overcome even against a scuffling Oakland Athletics club that had lost eight in a row at home.
The Royals lost the final game of their three-game series, 4-0, to the Athletics in front of an announced 14,341 at the Oakland Coliseum. The loss snapped a three-game win streak for the Royals, who are now 3-3 on their current road trip. They also fell to 26-29 all-time on Father’s Day.
The Royals continue their nine-game West Coast swing with three games against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim on Monday night.
The Royals (23-42) were shut out for the ninth time this season. They were held to three hits and six walks.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get anything put together or add up those big hits to make something happen,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s frustrating. But like we’ve talked about, when you’ve got a young pitcher that we haven’t seen before it just takes a little while to get a read on him.”
Rookie catcher MJ Melendez (2 for 3) had the lone extra-base hit for the Royals, a fifth-inning double. He had two of the team’s three hits. Hunter Dozier had the only other hit for KC.
Athletics starting pitcher Jared Koenig (1-2) earned his first win in the majors. He tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings with two hits and four walks.
“We were coming in here looking to win today, hopefully get a sweep, but nonetheless it’s still good to win a couple games and try to take some momentum into play against the Angels,” Melendez said.
Royals starting pitcher Brady Singer allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out four, didn’t walk a batter and gave up six hits.
Royals starting pitchers on this road trip entered the day having allowed just eight earned runs in 26 1/3 innings (2.73 ERA) and opponent’s had batted just .185 against them. That includes seven scoreless by Brad Keller on Saturday, a day when he didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning.
“We’ve got a little competition going now between all of us,” Singer said of the starting pitchers. “So it’s good. It’s definitely helping us out a lot, and we’re enjoying the process of putting together those good starts.”
Singer (3-2) left the game with the Athletics leading by one and two men on base. Reliever Jose Cuas gave up a home run that accounted for the final three runs (two charged to Singer).
Missed opportunities on both sides
The Athletics (23-45) scored all four of their runs via home runs.
Singer gave up a first-inning solo home run to Seth Brown with two outs and two strikes. That gave the Athletics a one-run advantage and they held onto that going into the sixth inning.
The Athletics nearly had a run in the third when Tony Kemp appeared to score from first base on a single to center field by Brown.
Royals center fielder Michael A. Taylor didn’t field the ball cleanly, and Kemp was called safe on a bang-bang play at the plate. Upon review, the relay throw from Taylor to second baseman Whit Merrifield to catcher Salvador Perez was in time and Perez tagged Kemp on his backside to record the inning-ending out.
Singer and the Royals defense squeaked their way out of a situation with runners on second and third and one out in the fifth inning without giving up a run.
“I think it was just making the right pitches and being careful about what I was doing,” Singer said of the key to escaping that jam. “Trying to make the right pitches in the right location at the right time. So I felt like that was a pretty good inning to get out of that jam.”
After a leadoff double, Royals third baseman Emmanuel Rivera had a miscommunication on a sacrifice bunt that allowed the Athletics to put two men on with no outs. A second bunt put runners on second and third with one out.
A ground ball to Merrifield, who was playing in, allowed the Royals to cut down another runner on his way to the plate for the second out of the inning. Then, a pop-up got Singer out of the jam without giving up a run.
“He really did a great job in that fifth of staying with it,” Matheny said of Singer. “Fantastic play by Whit. One of the best plays we’ve seen on contact and Salvy making the play.”
In the sixth, Singer gave up a single, hit a batter and uncorked a wild pitch that put runners on second and third before he struck out Jed Lowrie. Matheny turned to Cuas to try to get out of the inning.
Cuas got a pop-up for the second out of the inning, but then gave up a three-run home run to Sean Murphy to give the Athletics a 4-0 lead.
“Whenever you have a stress inning like that, you know there’s a chance that might have some carryover,” Matheny said of Singer. “He had a (single), hit batsman, wild pitch. Things are starting to head in a bad direction so we had to take our shot.
“Cuas has been really good. He did a great job of getting that first out. Made a really good pitch to get that pop-up, then unfortunately got too much of the middle of the plate against Murphy and it cost us three runs.”
The Royals left eight men on base in the first six innings. They left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth after putting three men on with one out.
Perez got hit by a pitch with one out and Dozier’s single and a Carlos Santana walk loaded the bases. Melendez hit a fly ball to left field that was too shallow for Perez to tag up and run. Taylor struck out swinging to end the inning.
In the bottom half of the inning, the Athletics chased Singer from the game and did damage against Cuas to make it a four-run advantage.
This story was originally published June 19, 2022 at 6:04 PM.