By Matthew T.F. Harrington

AP photo: The Kansas City Royals Edinson Volquez pitches to the Oakland A’s in the third inning at the Oakland Coliseum Friday

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Athletics early season offensive woes continued Friday night at O.Co Coliseum, with Edison Volquez and the World Champion Kansas City Royals stymieing the A’s 4-2. Stephen Vogt collected three hits, including a solo home run, but starter Rich Hill surrendered 3 runs over 4 1/3 innings to put Oakland behind early. Volquez (2-0, 2.04 ERA) pitched 6 innings, holding the A’s (4-7) to only 4 hits and a pair of earned runs. In total, the A’s only mustered 6 hits, with half coming from their 2015 all-star backstop.

Hill, the A’s big money offseason signing, continues to have mixed results in the early going. In his last start against the Seattle Mariners, the 6 million dollar man allowed only 5 hits and a single run in a six-inning win, but his surprise opening day start lasted just 2 2/3 innings and 4 earned runs. Friday began looking more like the latter than the former.

Leadoff man Alcides Escobar walked to open the game, then Omar Infante singled. Lorenzo Cain hit a run-scoring single that advanced Infante to third base. Eric Hosmer bounced into a double play that plated Infante. Hill would walk Kendrys Morales before finishing off Alex Gordon to end the first with the A’s trailing 1-0. Hill yielded a pair of singles in the 2^nd as well, but managed to strand the runners at 2^nd and 3^rd to avoid more damage.

“I thought he had good command of his breaking ball,” said Vogt of his batterymate. “He struggled at times with his command of the fastball. He also got himself into some hitter’s counts. They also had some pretty good pieces of hitting. His pitch count got higher than he wanted early.”

Stephen Vogt hit his first homer of the season off Volquez in the bottom of the 2^nd, taking a 2-2 offspeed pitch and depositing it into the bleachers in right field. Vogt would go 3-for-4 to momentarily buck an early season slump and raise his average to .273.

Hill yielded his 3^rd run of the day in the top half of the next inning on Kendry Morales’ 500^th career RBI. The A’s southpaw walked Cain to open the inning, then saw the Royals center fielder move to second on a ground out by Eric Hosmer. Morales went back up the box for a 3-1 lead. Hill (1-2, 4.15) would last only 1 1/3 more innings before being chased from the game, ultimately being tagged for the loss.

Oakland would pick up another run in the bottom of the  fourth, with the A’s catcher again in the middle of the action. Vogt singled to right field, then moved over to second on a Jed Lowrie bounce out. Another A’s slumping slugger Kris Davis singled Vogt home to pull the A’s within one run with five innings left to play.

It’d be the closest the A’s would get to the Royals (8-2), with Volquez pitching another scoreless pair of innings, then turning the game over to lights-out Kansas City pen. Kelvin Herrera and Joakim Soria pitched scoreless innings to set Wade Davis up for his 5th save.

Kansas City would stake its closer to a two-run lead after Hosmer took a 1-1 Sean Doolittle pitch halfway up Mount Davis for his first long ball of the year. Doolittle entered the game with the A’s trailing 3-2 after Fernando Rodriguez, Marc Rzepczynski and Ryan Dull pitched a combined 4 innings in relief. Doolittle has now given up 3 homers and 4 earned runs over his 5 1/3 innings of work this season.

“I can’t remember the last time a lefty has hit a homer off him,” said Melvin of his former closer. “On that particular pitch you have to give the hitter some credit.”

Oakland looks for ace Sonny Gray to play stopper Saturday. He’ll face the beguiling Chris Young and his repertoire of offspeed pitches and odd angles. The lanky righty is 0-2 with a 7.45 ERA this season.