Kansas City, MO – Jeremy Guthrie hurled seven scoreless innings and the Kansas City Royals used a five-run fifth to dispatch the Oakland Athletics, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game set.
Guthrie (2-3) scattered three hits and walked two while striking out eight to earn his second consecutive win. He's thrown 15 scoreless innings over his last two starts.
"(In) both I want to go out there and pound the (strike) zone and get ahead of guys," Guthrie said. "Finish them off and not make mistakes. That's been the key in the last two starts."
Billy Butler, Chris Getz, Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar drove in a run each for the Royals, who have won five of their last seven.
Jarrod Parker (7-7) was charged with five hits and five runs -- all but one earned -- over 4 2/3 innings for the Athletics, who have lost six of nine.
Parker held the fort for the first four innings, but the floodgates opened in the fifth.
Salvador Perez worked a leadoff walk, Jeff Francoeur followed with a double to put two in scoring position and Hosmer singled home Perez. Lorenzo Cain walked to load the bases, then a Getz sacrifice fly to right plated Francoeur, Gordon singled home Hosmer and Escobar's grounder to second -- which was booted by Jemile Weeks -- brought in Cain and left Gordon at third before Butler's fly to center capped the rally.
"I just got behind on a couple guys and they hurt me then," Parker said. "It's something I can't really do. It's inexcusable to put guys on after attacking. I started pitching backwards and it's not my style."
Jordan Norberto got the call and fanned Mike Moustakas to end the frame.
Guthrie, on the other hand, worked out of trouble in the third. Josh Donaldson singled and was thrown out at third trying to stretch out a Coco Crisp one-out base hit.
Donaldson walked with two down in the fifth, but the veteran right-hander retired Cliff Pennington on a fly out to left. KC's starter ended his outing by sending down the final five batters he faced
Tim Collins and Greg Holland combined to hold Oakland without a base runner over the final two innings.
Game Notes
The Royals' streak of eight straight games with a home run was ended on Tuesday ... It was the second time in 2012 Kansas City performed the feat after a run from May 21-29 ... Guthrie has tossed 15 scoreless innings over his last two outings, and recorded back-to-back wins for the first time since taking three straight from September 9-19, 2011 with Baltimore ... Prior to the game, the A's announced they placed third baseman Brandon Inge on the 15- day disabled list and recalled infielder Josh Donaldson from Triple-A Sacramento ... Oakland batters struck out 12 times.
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