Oakland Athletics Aledmys Diaz watches his RBI sacrifice fly during the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue Aug 22, 2023 (AP News photo)

Kansas City (40-88) 020 020 000. – 4. 6. 1

Oakland (36-90). 212 000 00x – 5. 6. 2

Time: 2:37

Attendance: 4,021

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–It’s not often that we get to see the A’s play a game that’s not a mismatch. Their current three game series against the Kansas City Royals affords us the rare opportunity to experience an exception to that unfortunate rule. Monday night’s walk off win over the Royals was an example of how exciting triple A baseball (well, maybe four A ball) can be, even if played by two major league teams. Tuesday’s 5-4 A’s win was another.

Both teams went the bullpen route.The Athletics picked Dany Jiménez, whose major league experience had consisted of 1-1/3 innings with the 2020 Giants before he signed with Oakland as a free agent after the ’21 season, for their opener.

He went 3-4, 3.41 over 34-1/3 frames last year. He made a cameo appearance in last night’s thriller against the Royals, throwing a third of an inning. He brought an 0-1, 6.75 record to the mound with him. Tuesday night, he retired the side in order in his one inning on the mound and then yielded to the just called up from Las Vegas Hogan Harris.

Harris had not been sharp in his last big league start; he gave up eight runs on nine hits, three of which were home runs, in three innings., which gave him a 2-6, 6.98 record for the season. He was a lot better tonight, but still not the type of pitcher you’d want to pin your hopes on. He gave up all of KC’s runs and did it in 3-2/3 innings.

KC used 23 year old Angel Zerpa as a prologue to the entry of 20 year veteran and 2009 Cy Young Award winner, Zack Greinke, fresh off the 15 day injured list He’s approaching his 3,000th career strikeout, but would have been mathematically impossible for him to have reached that milestone tonight. He came to work needing 45 more Ks to do that.

His record on entering the game in the bottom of the fourth was 1-12, 5.53, a sign that this year probably will be the last chance he has to become the 20th member of the 3,000 K Club. If the right elbow soreness that had sidelined him for two weeks still bothered him, his performance tonight didn’t reflect it.

He added five strikeouts to his total in his four inning stint as the bulk pitcher; he now has 2,960, Greinke held the A’s to two hits, one of them of the infield variety, and didn’t walk anyone. He did this on 53 pitches, 38 of them considered strikes.

He wasn’t involved in the decision because the A’s were ahead when he entered the game, and the Royals never caught up with them. John McMillon relieved him and set the A’s down 1-2-3 in the eighth.

Jiménez threw the game’s first pitch at 6:40. The “SELL THE TEAM” chants began at 6:42.

Oakland opened the scoring early, loading the bases with one out in the first when Zerpa hit Jonah Bride with a pitch, walked Zack Gelof, and, after Carlos Pérez flew out to left, Brent Rooker singled Bride home and Aledmys García’s sac fly brought Gelof home.

That 2-0 lead disappeared when Harris entered the fray and Kansas City imitated Oakland by loading the bases with one out; Number nine hitter Kyle Isbel drove in Salvador Pérez and MJ Meléndez with a two out single to center that knotted the score at two all.

Shea Langeliers’ 13th home run, a definitive 412 foot blast to left, to lead off the home second untied the knot. An inning later, Oakland tacked on another pair of runs. With one down, Carlos Pérez smacked a hard shot down the left field foul line that got by third sacker Maikel García. It was scored as an error. Rooker followed with a single to left and Aledmys García doubled to left.

The Royals mounted a comeback in the top of the fifth. Maikel García drew a leadoff base on balls and stole second. After Bobby Witt, Jr., fanned, Michael Massey sent a fly to deep left center that Ruíz caught up with while colliding with the wall.

The wall won; the ball was dislodged from Ruíz’s glove. García advanced to, but had to hold at, third. Salvador Pérez singled both runners home, closing the gap between the teams to 5-4. Meléndez went down swinging, and Spencer Patton, just promoted from the AAA Aviators, replaced Harris on the mound.

Harris retired Nelson Velázquez on a fly to right, retired the side in the sixth, and left with one away in the top of the seventh after a video review showed that Witt had beaten out a throw that otherwise would have resulted in a 6-4-3 double play. Kirby Snead was Patton’s replacement, and the score remained 5-4 in favor of Oakland at the seventh inning stretch.

Trevor May began the KC half of the ninth on the mound, facing the 9,1, and 2 Royal batters. They went down 1,2,3. It was Mays’ 13th save of the season. Harris got the win and now is 3-6, 7.14.

Tonight’s squeaker of a win brings Oakland’s record to W 36-90, .288. The Cleveland Spiders of August 22, 1899 were 18-92, .164, after having been obliterated, 15-6, at Eclipse Park by their hosts, the Louisville Colonels. 63 years later, the infamous and belovèd New York Mets enjoyed a rare victory. They defeated Don Larsen and the Giants, 5-4, at Candlestick. That raised the Amazin’s record to 32-95, 2.52.

The last game of the series will start tomorrow, Thursday, at 12:37. Kansas City intends to send southpaw Cole Ragens (2-1, 2.51). Oakland still hasn’t announced its starter or opener, as the case may be.