by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s return to Kansas City to face the Royals for the first time since the single-game playoff game last September 30th. If you recall, the A’s blew a four-run lead behind A’s ace, Jon Lester. The game was tied at 7 after nine innings of regulation. They played twelve innings to determine who would move on to play the Los Angeles Angels in the AL Division series. The A’s scored a run in the top of the twelfth to put them up 8-7. The Royals, who were in the playoffs for the first time since 1985, did what they had to do to win. Royals first baseman, Eric Hosmer, tripled with one out. Christian Colon hit a 45 foot chopper to third base driving in Hosmer with the tying run. With Colon at second, Salvador Perez hit a line shot just past Josh Donaldson to win the game for the Royals. The A’s went home  trying to figure out what went wrong and regroup while the Royals beat the Angels and Orioles to advance to the World Series and they played the Giants tough  before losing the series in seven games.

The A’s general manager, Billy Beane, thought he had put the pieces together to get the A’s to the World Series, but that didn’t happen. The A’s had the best record in baseball for the first four months of the 2014 season, but they had the worst record in all of baseball the last two months. The barely made the playoffs and suffered an early exit. The A’s reshaped their roster over the winter while the Royals did not many too many changes. They lost their designated hitter, Billy Butler, to the A’s. Nori Aoki signed with the Giants as a free agent and “Big game” James Shields, also a free agent signed with San Diego.

The Royals made three acquisitions  They picked up Kendry Morales, who was with Seattle last year, as their DH. Morales was a free agent in 2014 and did not sign a contract until 2 or 3 months after the season started and he had a bad year, Not this year.  They also signed Edison Volquez to replace James Shields.

In the nine games, the Royals played, Morales is hitting .351. They also signed Alex Rios to play right field. Rios was doing well but he was hit by a pitch that broke his left hand and he will be out for 3 to 6 weeks. The Royals are hot. They started out winning the first seven games they played. Their first loss came Wednesday night in Minnesota and the Twins beat them again on Thursday. The Royals are now 7-2 for 2015.

The Royals have strong starting pitching. Their five-man rotation is led by Edinson Volquez, Jeremy Guthrie, Yordano Ventura, Danny Duffy and Jason Vargas. Their bullpen was fantastic last year. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland were lights out in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings last year and have been excellent again this year.  The Royals have a veteran infield made up of Hosmer, Omar Infante, Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas. Manning the outfield are Lorenzo Cain, hitting a mere .429, moved to right field after the Rios injury and  Jarrod Dyson took over in  center and Alex Gordon remains in left. Gordon and Infante are hitting below the Mendoza line, but it’s early in the season. Catching is done by the very reliable Salvador Perez.

The A’s record so far is 5-5. They have won four games by shouting out  the opposition and have had four blowout wins. In three of the losses, the A’s scored just one run. The other two losses were in extra innings to the Seattle Mariners. The A’s, when they are hitting are formidable. Super Sam Fuld, filling-in for Coco Crisp, is hitting .361 with four doubles and three triple. Billy Butler has hit safely in all ten games. Ben Zobrist, acquired from Tampa Bay, is playing second base and left field. He hitting .286. Mark Canha, a Rule 5 draftee, can play first base and left field and is hitting .324 with 7 ribbies. Shortstop Marcus Semien is hitting .289 with 8 runs batted in. Ike Davis at first has a .333 batting average and third baseman Brett Lawrie is hitting .256. Catcher Stephen Vogt is at .300 and he is backed up by Josh Phegley. Josh Reddick is back in right field after starting the season on the DL and Craig Gentry and Cody Ross are backup outfielders.

It should be a terrific series starting Friday in KC. The pitching matchups will be the following: Sonny Gray going against Jeremy Guthrie on Friday, Jesse Hahn squares off against Yordano Ventura on Saturday and Scott Kazmir will face Danny Duffy on Sunday.