Josh Donaldson Powers A’s Past Royals 11-3

Some days, a pitcher just does not have his best stuff. There are times when a pitcher can get by without it, but tonight was not one of those nights for Jeremy Guthrie, as the A’s pounded the Royals, sending them to an 11-3 loss.

Oakland jumped on Guthrie early and often. The A’s put the first two runners of the game on, and after a fielder’s choice, Brandon Moss laced a double to deep center, plating the first run of the game. It was almost two runs instead, but Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar had an excellent relay, throwing out Josh Donaldson at the plate.

The A’s continued their offensive ways as the game reached the middle innings. Donaldson and Moss each had RBI singles in the third, and Oakland tacked on another run in the fourth when a double play scored Stephen Vogt. A sacrifice fly and a base hit from Vogt added two more runs in the fifth, as Oakland held a 6-0 lead. Guthrie had departed by that point, only lasting 4.2 innings as he struggled with his command.

With noted Royals killer Jon Lester on the mound, that seemed to be more than enough. Indeed, Lester cruised through the first four innings, giving up only three baserunners. What appeared to be a long night seemed even longer as Lester kept setting the Royals down.

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However, Kansas City got to Lester in the fifth. Mike Moustakas drew a four pitch walk, and moved to third on a double to left by Cain. A sacrifice fly put the Royals on the board, and moved Cain over to third. Nori Aoki reached on an infield single to short, which Eric Sogard then threw into the dugout, moving Aoki to second. After a groundout, Salvador Perez followed with a double to left, plating Aoki as the Royals cut the lead to 6-3.

That was as close as the Royals would get. Josh Donaldson continued his personal destruction of the Royals pitching staff as he led off the seventh with a home run against Bruce Chen to extend the lead to 7-3. The A’s then put four more runs up on Chen in the eighth, highlighted by a two run single from Sogard and another home run by Donaldson. Mercifully, the game was over quickly, as the A’s sent the Royals to an 11-3 loss.

Jeremy Guthrie took the loss, getting hammered for six runs, four earned, on eleven hits in 4.2 innings of work. Although he did not walk a batter while recording four strikeouts, Guthrie hung a lot of pitches over the middle of the plate, leading to the equivalent of batting practice for the A’s.

Josh Donaldson was a one man wrecking crew for Oakland, finishing 3-4 with two home runs, four RBIs and three runs scored. Nori Aoki was 2-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the loss.