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Royals look to ride resurgent Butler vs. Oakland

Sep 4, 2008 - 10:12 AM Oakland (63-75) at Kansas City (58-79) 5:10 p.m. EDT

Billy Butler has found his groove in September, and the Kansas City Royals can only hope it leads to more wins.

Butler aims to continue his hot stretch on Thursday when the Royals host a doubleheader against the Oakland Athletics.

The Royals' burly designated hitter homered and drove in four runs in a 5-2 victory over Oakland on Tuesday - the Royals' fifth win in 24 games. Butler also had four RBI in Saturday's 13-3 win over Detroit.

Butler is batting .500 (16-for-32) during an eight-game hitting streak, and said he has gone "back to the basics" after a slow start ended with him being sent back to the minors for a month.

"Obviously, earlier in the year wasn't working what I was doing," Butler said. "I really didn't have a mentality going up there hitting. I was confused. I was maybe letting other things get to me. I got to the point where I was going to go back to the basics and what always worked."

In the opener, Athletics lefthander Dana Eveland (8-8, 4.21 ERA), coming off two straight impressive starts, is expected to face off against Royals righthander Brian Bannister (7-14, 5.75), who has lost eight decisions in a row and has not picked up a victory since June 23.

Thursday's matinee, the first half of a doubleheader, is a makeup game after Wednesday's schedule matchup was postponed due to rain. A steady storm system hit the Kansas City metropolitan area in the hours before the game and lasted through much of the night.

The A's have lost four straight and 13 of their last 15.