LDN - Sports

Davis, Semien help A's power past Royals

[September 13, 2016] KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Kansas City Royals needed a good to great eight-game homestand to keep their postseason hopes doable.

This was, however, not the way to start it against the American League West bottom-feeders.

Khris Davis and Marcus Semien belted three-run homers as the Oakland Athletics routed the Royals 16-3 on Monday night.

The A's set season highs for runs and victory margin, and their 17 hits matched a season high. The A's also drew a season-high 10 walks.

"These games are easy to turn the page, a lot tougher than losing a one-run game or a game in extra innings," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "We just got beat. We didn't play good. We didn't pitch good and we got beat. It's not much to say. It's just one of those nights."

The A's had dropped 27 of their previous 40 games and were swept by Seattle at home last weekend, but their victory damaged the Royals' chances of returning to the postseason. The defending World Series champion Royals are four games out with 19 games left in the wild-card standings.

Royals starter and losing pitcher Dillon Gee was not thinking of the importance of the game while on the mound

"I was only thinking about trying to get people out tonight and I was having a hard enough time doing that," Gee said.

Joey Wendle, Danny Valencia, Stephen Vogt and Davis, the A's starting first four hitters, combined to go 8-for-15 with three walks, eight RBIs and six runs. Vogt reached base five times -- three hits, including a double, and two walks.

Semien's 24th home run of the season, tucked just inside the left-field foul pole with Davis and Yonder Alonso aboard, put an exclamation point on the A's five-run sixth, when they batted around for the second time in three innings.

Semien's shot came off Chris Young, who has allowed 27 home runs in 84 innings.

While only the Tampa Bay Rays have scored fewer runs than the A's this season, Oakland looked like the second coming of the Bash Brothers against six Royals pitchers. Every A's starter had a hit, and six collected multi-hit games.

"It's great to have a game like that," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "For a team that struggles to score runs, it is nice to have a positive mood in the dugout."

Left-hander Daniel Coulombe (3-1) struck out five in two perfect innings to pick up the victory. Zach Neal pitched the final three innings for his second career save.

Arismendy Alcantara and Ryon Healy each contributed two-run doubles in the ninth to cap the A's scoring.

After the A's big sixth inning, Yost emptied his bench, including Hunter Dozier, a 2013 first-round draft pick making his big league debut in right field. Melvin cleared his bench in the eighth, including Matt Olson and Renato Nunez, both just promoted from Triple-A Nashville, playing in their first major league game.

Davis' three-run homer, his 36th home run of the season, to center in the third gave the Athletics a 3-0 lead. It was his 17th homer in 53 games since the All-Star break.

"A fastball right down the middle," Gee said. "I kept missing in to him. I was trying to bring it back over the corner. I over-corrected and brought it back right down the middle."

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A's left-hander Ross Detwiler could not hold the lead for long. In the bottom of the inning, Paulo Orlando laced a two-run double to left and scored on Kendrys Morales' ensuing two-out single.

Morales has an RBI in seven consecutive games.

The A's batted around in a three-run fourth with four hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly off four Kansas City pitchers.

"We were trying to keep at 4-3," Yost said of his pitching changes in the inning. "We were mixing and matching, trying to get to CY (Young) in the fifth inning, but again we couldn't command the ball. Chris has had six days off. My mindset was he was going to come in and give us a couple of innings and get to the seventh, where we had our backend guys ready, just keep us in the game there and see what happens."

Gee yielded singles to Bruce Maxwell and Brett Eibner, the A's eighth and ninth hitters, to open the inning. Wendle's sacrifice fly scored Maxwell and finished Gee's night after 74 pitches and 3 1/3 woebegone innings.

"When you don't really have it when you're out there trying to find something in a big league game against big league hitters, it makes it real tough," Gee said. "They scored a lot of runs, but it's just one game."

But the games are dwindling for the Royals to return to the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Brooks Pounders replaced Gee and gave up a double on his fifth pitch to Valencia with Eibner stopping at third. Rookie left-hander Scott Alexander replaced Pounders and on his first and only pitch, Vogt dumped a two-run single into right field. Young replaced Alexander and walked two to load the bases before getting out of the inning.

The A's tacked on a run in the fifth with Valencia's sacrifice fly scoring Eibner.

"We were swinging at a lot of good pitches," said Eibner, whom the Royals traded to the A's on July 30 for Billy Burns. "We swung at pitches we want to hit and when you do that, the runs seem to pile up."

Detwiler was removed after four innings, surrendering three runs, six hits and two walks. Coulombe relieved Detwiler and worked a 1-2-3 fifth, striking out two.

NOTES: C Salvador Perez was a late scratch from the Royals' lineup after his fiancé gave birth to a son on Monday. Sal Butera replaced him in the lineup. ... The A's promoted 1B-OF Matt Olson and 3B Renato Nunez, who are both 22, from Triple-A Nashville, which was eliminated from the Pacific Coast League playoffs on Sunday. ... The Royals recalled RHP Alec Mills from Triple-A Omaha. He made his big league debut on May 18, but he has pitched primarily in the minors this season. ... Royals RHP Kris Medlen still has shoulder weakness and likely won't pitch again this season. ... INF Raul Mondesi started 36 games at second base for the Royals after being recalled July 25, but he has been benched with a .183 average. "We need offense right now," Royals manager Ned Yost said. ... A's RHP Jharel Cotton and Royals LHP Danny Duffy are the Tuesday probables.

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