Royals get 15 hits, sweep doubleheader over A's

Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:10 PM EDT

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KANSAS CITY — Jose Guillen drove in three runs, Kyle Davies ended a four-game losing streak and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 9-6 on Thursday night to complete a doubleheader sweep.

Kansas City, which won the first game 5-4 in 10 innings, also finished off a sweep of the three-game series between two of the AL's worst teams. The Royals jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the second game and finished with 15 hits.

Oakland scored three in the seventh and two in the ninth to cut it to 9-6 before Ramon Ramirez finished for his first career save.

Kansas City's David DeJesus had three hits in each game of the doubleheader and scored three times on the day. Billy Butler extended his hitting streak to 10 games with three doubles, including one that drove in two of the Royals' four runs in the third inning of the first game.

Oakland had a chance in the first game and tried to rally from a big deficit in the second, but continued its free fall in the standings. The A's were four games behind AL West-leading Los Angeles on July 11 and have lost 35 of 47 since, dropping 22 1/2 games behind the Angels.

The remnants of Hurricane Gustav washed out Wednesday's game, forcing Oakland to play its first doubleheader since being swept in Kansas City on Aug. 18, 2006.

It was another sweep, though not many people made it to the first game.

A 4:10 p.m. start, continued cool weather and two teams a combined 33 games under .500 made for a crowd better suited for a rec league softball game, with a few hundred fans scattered around 38,030-seat Kauffman Stadium for the first pitch.

A few more showed up later and watched Joey Gathright hit a run-scoring single off Joey Devine (4-1) in the 10th inning, giving the Royals a 5-4 win.

Kansas City starter Brian Bannister lost a 4-0 lead in that game, giving up three unearned runs in the fifth after shortstop Mike Aviles mishandled a grounder, then a leadoff homer to Daric Barton in the sixth. Joakim Soria (2-3) allowed one hit over the final two innings to get the win.

The Royals got off to fast start in the nightcap, scoring four in the first against Dan Meyer (0-4), another in the third, and two more in the fourth on consecutive run-scoring triples by Esteban German and Aviles. Guillen followed with an RBI single off Kirk Saarloos to put Kansas City up 8-1, his broken bat sailing nearly as far as the ball into shallow left field.

Kyle Davies (6-6) didn't have the same trouble Bannister faced. The right-hander allowed three hits in five innings, limiting Oakland to Ryan Sweeney's RBI double in the third.

The A's got a decent start in the first game from Dana Eveland, who had one bad inning and didn't walk anyone in six innings after issuing 21 free passes his previous seven starts.

Meyer wasn't nearly as sharp.

The left-hander never really recovered after Kansas City's big first inning, allowing seven earned runs — eight total — in 3 1-3 innings for his fourth straight loss as a starter.

Notes:@ Kansas City's Miguel Olivo was 2-for-4 in the first game to end an 0-for-12 streak. ... Oakland had a pickoff in both games and has 31 this season, topping the 2004 franchise record by two. ... Mike Sweeney was 0-for-5 in game 1, his first as a visiting player at Kauffman after spending 11 1/2 seasons with the Royals. He didn't appear in the second game.