Athletics 2, Royals 1
Josh Outman pitched seven shutout innings and Cliff Pennington broke a scoreless tie with a run-scoring single in the sixth to help the Oakland Athletics to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.
The victory was only the second in 15 games for Oakland, which won for the second time in six games since Bob Melvin replaced Bob Geren as manager.
Outman (2-1) allowed four hits and walked two during his best outing of the season. He struck out two before giving way to Brian Fuentes to start the eighth. Andrew Bailey worked a perfect ninth for his second save since coming off the disabled list in late May.
Oakland added an insurance run in the seventh when Ryan Sweeney singled, was sacrificed to second and scored on Daric Barton’s single to left-center field.
Kansas City cut its deficit to 2-1 in the eighth when Alcides Escobar doubled with two outs, stole third and scored on Alex Gordon’s infield single.
Luke Hochevar (4-7) pitched five hitless innings until Landon Powell’s leadoff single in the sixth. Jemile Weeks followed with a bunt single, moved to second when Powell was forced out at third and then stole third base before Pennington singled him home.
Hochevar gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings.
Escobar had three of Kansas City’s seven hits and has recorded five straight multi-hit games.