A's Sweep Royals in Kansas City

The A's took the series finale in Kansas City by a score of 3-2, which gave the team the series sweep. Jeffrey Springs took the mound for the Green and Gold, as he was able to give the A's six innings and allowed just a pair of runs on seven hits.

Bobby Witt Jr. broke out of his slump to open the scoring for the Royals in the third inning to score Kyle Isbel, and then Vinnie Pasquantino would drive in Witt Jr. to give Kansas City a two-run lead. The A's were down early, but hung close for some late-game heroics.

For the Royals, they had southpaw Noah Cameron, who's been having a terrific rookie campaign on the mound for Kansas City, and he was able to pitch five innings of scoreless baseball, allowing four hits, a walk, and punching out seven A's hitters. Cameron was only at 83 pitches, but the team elected to pull him, which didn't turn out well for them.

Newly acquired A's catcher Austin Wynns would take the new reliever John Schreiber deep to tie the game in the top of the sixth. The 2-run shot by Wynns would be his fifth long ball of the season, and he's slowly looking like the A's new starting catcher while Shea Langeliers remains on the injured list.

In a tie game, the A's would turn to T.J. McFarland and Tyler Ferguson to pitch the seventh and eighth innings, and they would combine for just one hit allowed, and three strikeouts to keep the A's in the ballgame late.

Former A's reliever Lucas Erceg came into the game in the late innings for the Royals, and was able to pitch 1 1/3 innings of one- hit baseball in just his second outing since returning from the IL. The only hit he surrendered was of course to his former teammate, Brent Rooker.

In the top of the ninth, the Royals would turn to their trusty closer Carlos Estévez. However, A's first baseman Nick Kurtz would get a hold of one off Estévez, and came up big with a clutch home run to give the A's a ninth-inning lead at 3-2.

The A's then turned to their closer, Mason Miller, in hopes of holding onto the one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth. In the series opener Miller gave up three runs, nearly blowing the five-run lead the A's gave him. However, this time, Miller would only give up one hit and strike out a pair of Royals hitters to secure his 14th save of the season.

Coincidentally, Estévez also pitched on Friday with his team facing a five-run deficit, and he needed just six pitches to work a scoreless ninth.

Tomorrow, the A's will be back in West Sacramento to begin a four-game series against the AL West leading Houston Astros. With the A's coming off a nice road sweep, the hope is that they can carry a bit of that momentum back to Sacramento and make up some ground on the Astros.