Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Athletics’ bats, arms keep Kansas City in check
ATHLETICS 8, ROYALS 3
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andrew Triggs pitched six shutout innings, Jed Lowrie drove in three runs and the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals 8-3 Wednesday night.
Triggs (2-0) scattered four hits and a walk, striking out three. It was the former Royals farmhand's second solid start this season, having allowed one unearned run over 51/3 innings against the Angels.
Triggs combined with Ryan Dull to extend the Royals' scoreless-inning streak to 19 before Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer drove in runs off reliever Liam Hendricks in the eighth. Raul Mondesi homered in the ninth.
The A's have won eight in a row over the Royals, six of those coming at Kauffman Stadium — and most of them in romps. Oakland has outscored the Royals 53-15 in the games played in Kansas City.
Jason Hammel (0-1) gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks before getting yanked with two outs in the fifth.
Travis Wood and Chris Young allowed four more runs in another embarrassing show by the Royals' bullpen, which hardly resembles the group that led them to the 2015 World Series title.
Then again, their performance was moot the way the offense was sputtering.
Triggs got an inning-ending double play to escape the first, then stranded a runner at third in the second before cruising through the next four innings. By the time the Royals squandered a leadoff double in the fourth, they had gone 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position for the second straight game.
Jordan Montgomery showed power and poise in his major league debut after allowing Rickie Weeks’ two-run homer in
YANKEES 8, RAYS 4
the first inning, and the New York Yankees rallied past the sloppy Tampa Bay 8-4 Wednesday to get back to .500. New York’s Brett Gardner and Weeks both left the game after a collision at first base in the sixth inning. Running hard on a comebacker, Gardner slammed into Weeks, who had not played first in the major leagues before this season and stayed in the baseline as he reached for reliever Xavier Cedeno’s poor throw. Both fell to the field as Chase Headley came home with the go-ahead run. Gardner was diagnosed with a bruised jaw and a strained beck, and Weeks with neck and right shoulder soreness.
TIGERS 5, TWINS 3
Andrew Romine hit his first career grand slam, and the Detroit Tigers rallied from an early three-run deficit to beat the
Wednesday’s games NATIONAL LEAGUE
St. Louis 6, Washington 1 San Diego 6, Colorado 0 NY Mets 5, Philadelphia 4 Cincinnati 9, Pittsburgh 2 Atlanta 5, Miami 4 LA Dodgers 2, CHI Cubs 0 Arizona at San Francisco, (n)
AMERICAN LEAGUE
NY Yankees 8, Tampa Bay 4 Detroit 5, Minnesota 3 CHI White Sox 2, Cleveland 1 Baltimore 12, Boston 5 Oakland 8, Kansas City 3 Texas at LA Angels, (n) Houston at Seattle, (n)
INTERLEAGUE
Milwaukee 2, Toronto 0
Minnesota Twins 5-3 on Wednesday. The Tigers trailed 3-0 before scoring five runs in the fourth inning, with Romine delivering the key hit when his drive to right field easily cleared the wall to give Detroit the lead. Michael Fulmer (1-0) allowed three runs and four hits in six innings, walking one and striking out seven. Detroit’s maligned bullpen pitched three hitless innings, with Alex Wilson working the final two for his third career save and first this season. He walked two in the ninth but retired Eduardo Escobar on a flyball to end it.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CARDINALS 6, NATIONALS 1 Mike Leake outpitched 2016 NL Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, Stephen Piscotty homered and had five RBIs, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals 6-1 on Wednesday to avoid a three-game sweep. Leake (1-1) gave up four hits, struck out seven and walked none over seven shutout innings. The right-hander allowed hits to the first two batters, then picked off a runner before getting 19 straight outs. The streak ended when Daniel Murphy singled with two outs in the seventh. By that time, St. Louis had taken a 3-0 lead against Scherzer, who yielded only one earned run. He did, however, throw three wild pitches — two in the third inning — after tossing only two all last year while going 20-7.