The Athletics don’t do things the easy way.
That much was evident during a 9-7 road win Saturday over the Kansas City Royals, a game the A’s appeared to have in hand before reliever Sam Moll had a disastrous eighth inning. Moll faced four hitters, retired none and gave up a three-run homer.
The A’s led 8-4 after Tony Kemp’s two-run home in the top of the eighth. Kemp also had a pair of doubles and the game’s defensive gem, spearing a line drive out with a sprawling dive in the first inning.
The win in 95-degree heat and Midwest humidity snapped a four-game losing streak for the A’s (24-49).
“This game kind of showed this team’s fight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “They won as a team today. Each guy picked each other up. Every single guy that came into the game just grinded.”
Zach Jackson (2-2), the second of four Oakland relievers, was credited with the win by the official scorer. Jackson pitched one inning and retired the side in order. A.J. Puk, who relieved starter Jared Koenig with two outs in the fourth inning, gave up two hits and a run in 1 1/3 innings.
Brad Keller (2-9), who held the A’s to one hit over seven innings last week, took the loss for Kansas City (26-44).
Lou Trivino closed things out with six-out save in the eighth and ninth.
It has been a rough season for Trivino, and after Moll came undone in the eighth, the Athletics were in danger of letting another game get away. That had happened two days earlier with Jackson and Puk on the mound after Frankie Montas had thrown eight shutout innings.
Instead, Trivino, who has a 7.52 ERA, ended up getting six outs and a save, his third of the season.
“We leaned on Lou today,” Kotsay said. “He made pitches. Coming off the mound (in the eighth), you could tell he was fired up and wanted the ball in the ninth. That’s the Lou I’ve seen in the past and what we hope to see in the future.”
The nine runs were the most scored by the A’s since they got 10 on June 11 in Cleveland. They had scored 15 runs in their previous 10 games.
Have yourself a day, TK! pic.twitter.com/YfbwBy3mPT
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) June 25, 2022
Kemp’s two-run home run in the eighth inning off Taylor Clark came after Kemp had pulled a fastball for a long-distance foul.
“After I yanked that fastball foul inside, I had a feeling he’d go back to the slider,” Kemp said. “He did, I tried to put a good swing on it and it went out of the ballpark.”
The A’s scored twice in the first inning and had a 5-1 lead when Koenig went to the mound for the fifth. The San Jose native, who’d gotten his first major league win June 19 against the Royals, got within one out of qualifying for his second. But a two-out walk, after he’d opened the fifth with a walk, prompted Kotsay’s call to the bullpen. Koenig had thrown 83 pitches, only 46 for strikes.
