Nick Allen hit a two-run bloop single in the seventh inning Sunday to enable the Athletics to do something they hadn’t accomplished in over a month.
With a 5-3 road win over the Kansas City Royals, the Athletics not only won back-to-back games for the first time this month but also took two out of three in the series.It was the first time the Athletics won consecutive games since May 25, when they won twice in Seattle. That also happens to be the last series the Athletics won. Their record during the month of June is 5-17 heading into a three-game series in New York against the Yankees. The A’s had lost eight consecutive series.
Seth Brown homered for the Athletics (25-49), a solo shot in the fourth inning. It was his 10th of the season.Sam Moll was the winning pitcher, coming in after starter James Kaprielian. Lou Trivino, coming off a two-inning save Saturday, pitched the ninth for his fourth save, stranding runners at second and third. All five A’s runs scored with two outs.
Brady Singer, who pitched into the ninth inning for the Royals (26-45), was the losing pitcher and fell to 3-3.
Trailing 3-2, Allen’s bloop single to center brought home two runs and put the A’s up 4-3 in the seventh inning, and Cristian Pache drove a two-out run-scoring single in the ninth and a two-run margin.
In the seventh, Chad Pinder, involved in a nasty collision in the previous inning, stayed in the game and got it started with a single to right. Pache hit a grounder through the right side and hustled his way to second for a double, with Pinder taking third. Allen’s single drove in both runners.
The Royals, trailing 2-0, scored three times in a sixth inning that included a collision between Pinder in right and second baseman Jonah Bride on a bloop single that allowed the third run to score.Nicky Lopez opened the sixth with a triple down the left field line past a diving Tony Kemp. Kaprielian got Whit Merrifield on a comebacker but walked Anthony Benintendi and Bobby Witt Jr. to load the bases.
Manager Mark Kotsay called for Moll, coming off a Saturday disaster in which he walked three batters and gave up a three-run home run. Moll struck out M.J. Melendez, but Carlos Santana singled to right and brought home the tying runs.
Pinch-hitter Edward Olivares lofted a pop to shallow right that neither Pinder nor Bride could reach. Bride drove his head into Pinder’s rib cage and cut the bridge of his nose. The lead run scores, and Olivares was thrown out at second. Bride did not return to the game.
