KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Seth Brown hit his 10th home run of the season, Nick Allen had two RBIs and the Oakland Athletics defeated the Kansas City Royals 5-3 on Sunday.
Brown leads the team in HRs, and belted a solo shot to right in the sixth inning to make it 2-0.
“I’ve faced (Royals starter Brady Singer) quite a few times now and I felt confident going in,” Brown said. “I knew what I wanted to do with my approach and I worked out well today.”
Kansas City responded in the bottom of the sixth with three runs, including Carlos Santana’s two-run single and a pinch-hit RBI bloop single by Edward Olivares.
Allen then hit his two-RBI single in the seventh, and Cristian Pache added an insurance run in the ninth with an RBI single.
“It was a two-out rally in the seventh,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. “… We had some momentum and for Nick to drop one into centerfield like that, we haven’t been getting many of those types of hits. It was good to see a ball fall in for us and give us a lead there.”
Oakland starter James Kaprielian gave up three runs on two hits in 5 1/3 innings of work with two strikeouts and four walks. He was chased after giving up a leadoff triple to Nicky Lopez and two walks, and Sam Moll allowed all those runners to score.
“Overall, I would say the performance (from Kaprielian) was really good,” Kotsay said. “He almost ended up on the wrong side of it with a fluke hit that falls in thankfully we were able to get him off the hook and get him a win.”
Oakland relievers Moll, Domingo Acevedo (1-1) and Zach Jackson held the Royals scoreless, and Lou Trivino recorded his fourth save of the year.
Brady Singer (3-3) gave up five runs on seven hits in a career-high 8 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and a walk. All runs came with two outs. Singer became the first Royal to lose a start of at least 8 1/3 innings since Danny Duffy in July 2017.
“Brady was terrific. Couldn’t ask for anything more,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “So close to that being at least seven with just two runs. He did everything we needed him to do and he was efficient and so close.”
Kansas City dropped its sixth consecutive rubber game at home, dating back to September. They now continue a 12-game stretch against AL West opponents, taking on the Texas Rangers starting Monday night. Kris Bubic (1-4, 7.41) will get the start against Texas LHP Martin Perez (5-2, 1.96).
