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Stewart scores on sac fly in 11th inning, A's edge Royals

May 16, 2007 - 8:04 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- After blowing a three-run lead in the ninth inning, Shannon Stewart and the Oakland Athletics did something about it in extra frames.

Stewart had two hits and scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the 11th inning as the Athletics edged the Royals, 5-4, on Tuesday.

Nick Swisher had three hits and Bobby Crosby drove in two runs for Oakland, which is 17-2 when scoring four or more runs.

With one out in the bottom of the 11th, Stewart hit an infield single off reliever Joakim Soria (1-2) and moved to third on Swisher's base hit to center field. After Eric Chavez was intentionally walked to load the bases, Dan Johnson hit a fly ball to center fielder David DeJesus, whose subsequent throw to the plate was half a tick late to get the sliding Stewart.

"I was fortunate just to get it just deep enough," Johnson said. "There was no room for error and (Stewart) being as fast as he is was able to get in there."

"Initially, when Shannon was in there, I thought he slid under the tag," Chavez added. "And then watching it again it looked like he still slid under the tag. It's a tough call depending on who you ask but either way, one team was going to be really upset."

Lenny DiNardo (1-1) pitched the top of the 11th to earn his second victory in his four-year career.

After trailing for most of the game, the Royals rallied to tie it in the last two innings.

With the A's leading, 2-0, in the eighth, John Buck led off the inning with a solo homer off starter Joe Kennedy to cut the Royals' deficit in half. It was the third homer and sixth RBI for Buck in his last four games.

After the Athletics took a 4-1 in the bottom of the frame on a run-scoring double by Chavez and an RBI single by Mark Ellis, the Royals tied the contest in the ninth.

"We played until the end, that's important but we got to get better at executing when we have a guy at third base with less than two outs," Royals manager Buddy Bell said.

Emil Brown drove in Mark Teahen with a single to right field off Alan Embree to make the score, 4-2. Later in the frame, with runners on first and third, Tony Pena Jr. lined a hit off reliever Jay Witasick that took a high hop over the head of center fielder Nick Swisher, plating two runs to tie the score at 4-4.

"Our team battled our tails off tonight," Royals catcher Paul Phillips said. "We were down, put up three in the ninth, tied it up and went after it."

The hit was ruled a triple and was the fourth hit of the game for Pena.

The Athletics suffered the collapse without the services of closer Huston Street, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday with irritation in his right ulnar nerve. The 23-year-old closer had recorded all nine of Oakland's previous saves this year.

The makeshift bullpen also wasted an excellent effort by Kennedy, who yielded a run, six hits and a walk in 7 2/3 innings.

His counterpart, Brian Bannister, allowed two runs, five hits and three walks.

"A quality start every time out, giving my team a chance to win, that's what I tried to do tonight," Bannister said.

In the fourth, Swisher singled to right field and moved to second on a walk by Johnson. After both runners moved up a base on a groundout, Crosby hammered a single to center field off Bannister to give Oakland a 2-0 lead.

Johnson also had a single in the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.

"I'll just keep it going, and we'll see what happens," Johnson said.