A’s 8, Royals 3: Triggs, bats lift Oakland.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Oakland’s under-the-radar waiver claim last spring, whisking a minor-league reliever away from Baltimore, has morphed into so much more.
Andrew Triggs is thriving as a starter with the A’s, and on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium, he turned in six scoreless innings in Oakland’s 8-3 win over the Royals, the team that drafted him in 2012. He has yet to allow an earned run this season.
“You expect some of the righties to take bad swings, but he had some of the lefties taking some bad swings,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Ninety pitches, six innings, nothing. Confidence-wise, it’s big for him to get off to this kind of start.”
As a starter, period, Triggs has excelled since the A’s began trying him in that role last season. He has worked 371⁄3 innings and allowed eight runs, an ERA of 1.93. He has walked five and struck out 26.
Best known as the man who was recalled by the A’s an Oakland-record eight times last year, Triggs has worked 112⁄3 innings this season and has given up eight hits and one unearned run.
“Once the lights turn on and the real games begin is when you want to really perform,” said Triggs, who had an ERA of 8.10 during the spring. “I’m pretty pleased with how things have gone.”
Kansas City didn’t produce its first runs of the series until the eighth inning, scoring twice off reliever Liam Hendriks to end a 19-inning scoreless streak. The A’s have won eight in a row against the Royals dating to last year.
In the series opener Monday, both of Oakland’s runs came on a homer by Khris Davis, but on Wednesday, after a built-in rainout-makeup off day, the A’s got contributions up and down the lineup.
Everyone had at least one hit except leadoff man Marcus Semien, and he walked twice and scored two runs. It was a particularly good evening for the team when it came to getting leadoff men on and in — the A’s did so in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth — and when it came to two-strike hitting.
“Across the board, our atbats seem to be better, fighting a little harder, more pitches are thrown,” Melvin said.
Trevor Plouffe, off to a creaky start with a .154 average coming into the night, singled to start the third and scored on Rajai Davis’ double to left on a 1-2 pitch from Jason Hammel.
In the fourth, Khris Davis and Stephen Vogt started things with singles (Vogt’s on a 1-2 pitch), and with one out and an 0-2 count, Yonder Alonso lifted a soft single to center to send in Davis. Plouffe followed with a sacrifice fly, more twostrike hitting. Ditto Jed Lowrie’s sacrifice fly the next inning, which sent in Semien.
“Just nicking them up, one run at a time,” Melvin said.
In the sixth, Oakland scored four more runs, with RBI singles from Rajai Davis and Matt Joyce and a two-run double off the wall in right by Lowrie.
“We had a lot of chances,” Semien said. “We probably could have scored even more.”
Triggs’ line — six innings, four hits, one walk, three strikeouts — makes it look as if he had a fairly easy evening, but he did some deft work. He had runners at first and second with one out in the first and got Eric Hosmer to bounce into a double play. Triggs gave up a leadoff double to Salvador Perez in the second, but Brandon Moss grounded out to short, Cheslor Cuthbert grounded out to first and Alcides Escobar hit a drive to center that Rajai Davis snared with a slick diving catch.
“Shoot, if that ball falls, it’s got a chance to be a different game,” Triggs said.
The Royals got a leadoff double in the fourth from Lorenzo Cain, but Triggs struck out Hosmer and got Perez and Moss to fly out.