Luis Medina snapped a personal 11-month losing streak, Brent Rooker drove in a pair of runs and the Oakland Athletics made it two straight over the visiting Kansas City Royals with a 5-1 victory Wednesday night.
Zack Gelof homered and Miguel Andujar collected three hits, scored a run and drove in another for the A’s, whose winning streak is their first since a six-gamer bridging April and May.
Medina (1-2) limited the Royals to one run and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.
The win was his first since last July 18, when he beat the Boston Red Sox. He then went his last eight starts of the 2023 season without a win, a skid that reached 11 after his first three outings this year.
The A’s gave their pitcher a 2-0 lead in the third when walks to Max Schuemann and JJ Bleday set up RBI singles by Andujar and Rooker off Royals starter Cole Ragans (4-5).
Kansas City cut its deficit in half on a Bobby Witt Jr. double in the fifth, but the A’s did the rest of the night’s scoring, adding two in the seventh and another on Gelof’s homer, his seventh, in the eighth.
Rooker and Tyler Nevin produced the seventh-inning runs with RBI singles.
Ragans had already called it a night, having allowed just two runs and four hits in six innings. He walked four and struck out seven.
Bleday scored twice for the A’s, who get a chance to sweep the three-game set Thursday and split their six-game season series against the Royals.
T.J. McFarland, Dany Jimenez, Austin Adams and Mason Miller combined for 3 1/3 innings of two-hit, shutout relief. No save was recorded for Miller, who struck out two of the four men he faced in a hitless ninth.
Witt had a double and a single for the Royals, who dropped their third straight. Kyle Isbel also had two of Kansas City’s eight hits.
–Field Level Media