By Morris Phillips

With every shutout—and each bench-clearing incident—the 2015 A’s are growing closer and better as a team.

Saturday night in Kansas City was an occasion for both as the A’s shut down the Royals 5-0 during which tensions between the clubs spilled onto the field for the second straight evening.

The A’s scored all five of their runs in the eventful fourth inning and Josh Reddick’s home run with a pair of runners aboard stood as the capper.  Brett Lawrie was the next batter following Reddick, which almost by baseball definition, meant things were just getting started.

Flashback to Lawrie’s aggressive slide into second base on Friday night that took out Royals’ shortstop Alcides Escobar.  Escobar was felled in an awkward manner, injured on the play and carried off by teammates.  The play was complicated by the hit ball’s ricochet off reliever Kelvin Hererra that was then fielded by Mike Moustakas near third making his throw late to Escobar covering second base.

In Lawrie’s defense, he was trying to break up what he feared was a potential double play.  The former Blue Jay said he didn’t see the ball bound off the pitcher, which disrupted the timing of a possible relay throw from Escobar.  Luckily, what looked bad actually wasn’t that bad: according to manager Ned Yost, Escobar suffered a deep bruise and could have played Saturday, but was held out for precautionary reasons.

Escobar and his teammates voiced their displeasure, barking at Lawrie as he headed to the dugout following the play.  Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown.  Later, Lawrie claimed he texted Escobar with a note of apology, which according to Lawrie, was answered with a dismissive text from Escobar.

Before the game, the Venezuelan shortstop claimed he never heard from Lawrie verbally or via text, basically accusing the A’s infielder of being horribly insensitive.  What may have been bothering Escobar even more was being scratched from Saturday’s lineup.  The slick fielder has missed just 15 of 658 games since being acquired by the Royals from the Brewers following the 2010 season.

Either way, tensions were still high when Lawrie stepped into the batter’s box in the fourth inning.  Reddick—hardly distracted by the occasion of his first home run of the season—posted himself closest to the field on the A’s dugout steps in anticipation of something bad happening.

“We knew it was coming,” Reddick said of the moment.

Royals’ starter Yordano Ventura bounced his first pitch to Lawrie well off the plate.  But his second pitch bore in and glanced the A’s hitter on the arm and home plate umpire Jim Joyce signaled for Ventura’s ejection immediately.

The bench-clearing posturing that followed didn’t amount to much.  Lawrie diffused things most effectively by quietly heading to first base.  Ike Davis got to bark, showing his loyalty to his new Oakland teammates, and Billy Butler got to show how much he cares for his new and old teammates by being the chief peacemaker.  “Country Breakfast,” a commanding presence, posted himself between both groups and single-handedly kept things calm.

The A’s stopped a brief, two-game slide with the shutout win, and evened their season record at 6-6.  The win gave the A’s first place in the AL West to themselves for the evening as each of the other four division teams are currently under .500.

Oakland starter Jesse Hahn picked up his first win as an Athletic despite departing early with a blister on his pitching hand.  Hahn allowed just three hits and was helped by inducing a pair of double-play ground balls.

Former starter Jesse Chavez was even more impressive in relief.  He pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, scattering four hits while striking out six.

Five of the A’s six wins have come via shutout, and the sixth saw starter Scott Kazmir allow just one run on Monday in Houston, an 8-1 victory.  That kind of dominance qualifies the new-look A’s as a bonafide juggernaut, that is if you simply discount their more narrow losses.

Even at .500, the A’s are an early season surprise, having scored 65 runs in 12 games, the major league’s second best run total, trailing only the wall-bashing Boston Red Sox.

Kazmir takes the ball in Sunday’s rubber match in Kansas City with lefty Danny Duffy getting the start for the Royals.