A’s erupt in drubbing of Royals
KANSAS CITY – Something about playing on the road just gets this A’s offense going.
After cooling off this past home stand from a 10-game road trip that saw the A’s hit 19 home runs and score 60 runs, the A’s wasted no time getting back to their hot-hitting ways away from Oakland in Friday’s 16-0 win over the Royals.
The 16 runs tied their season-high run total, having also scored 16 on April 11 at Dodger Stadium. The A’s have now hit 50 home runs in 28 road games this year, as opposed to just 22 in 30 games at the Coliseum. They hit three Friday night, including two monster shots by Matt Olson, who finished 3 for 4 with a walk and a career-high five RBIS.
“Every at-bat tonight, against lefties, it didn’t matter. He was on it,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Every sound that left his bat today, even the outs, were clicked. We saw what he could do last year when he got hot and it looks like he’s starting one of those
Bay Area News Group/tns The Oakland A’s Matt Olson, left, celebrates his three-run home run with Jed Lowrie during the third inning of the A’s 16-0 demolition of the Royals on Friday night in Kansas City.
streaks right now.”
Both home runs came against Royals starter Ian Kennedy. The first homer came in second inning, a solo shot well up the seats in right field. The second came in the third, a threerun bomb into the fountain out in right-center field that traveled an estimated 456 feet. It was Olson’s 11th home run of the year and third home run in as many at-bats, having hit one in the eighth inning
of Thursday’s victory over the Rays.
Olson’s homer in the third was part of a seasonhigh seven-run inning, which also saw Dustin Fowler hit his second home run of the season.
Fowler also smacked a three-run homer to center in the ninth as he finished 3 for 5 with two home runs and four RBIS, all careerhighs for the rookie center fielder.
Of course the 16-run, 16hit offensive outbreak may not just be due to the team being back on the road, they also had their slugger back for the second consecutive game.
Having scored seven runs in his return to the lineup Thursday, the A’s once again looked like a completely rejuvenated squad with Khris Davis in the lineup. Davis went 1 for 4, with a two-run single that came in the seven-run third.
It was more than enough run support for Frankie Montas, who continued his impress run since being called back up to the majors.
Following up a 2018 debut in which he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of what was his first major league win as a starter, Montas went even deeper this time around, allowing no runs on seven hits and no walks with two strikeouts over eight innings of work.
It was the longest outing of his professional career without allowing a run as he improved to 2-0, lowering his ERA to 0.64 in two starts this season.