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Royals seek to extend torrid home start versus A's

May 8, 2011 - 2:47 PM (Sports Network) - The Kansas City Royals try to build on the best home record in baseball today as they are set to host the Oakland Athletics in the finale of a three-game set at Kauffman Stadium.

All too often the laughing stock of the American League in recent years, the Royals might well have turned things around as just one of two teams in the AL Central to have a winning record heading into Mother's Day. Of the club's 18 victories, leaving them 4 1/2 games behind first-place Cleveland, the Royals have recorded all but three of those at home thus far. On Saturday the team's dominance in their own stadium continued as KC logged a hard-fought 4-3 win over the A's, thanks to the Mike Aviles game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.

The Royals spread the wealth yesterday as four different players were credited with one RBI and a total of seven recorded a hit.

Reliever Joakim Soria picked the win for the hosts when he pitched a scoreless ninth inning to give the Royals their sixth victory in their last eight games. Starter Luke Hochevar went seven-plus innings, allowing one run on four hits and no walks while striking out three.

Brandon McCarthy was saddled with the complete-game loss as he allowed four runs, seven hits and two walks in 8 1/3 innings. He also struck out three in Oakland's third loss in its last five games. With the setback the A's fell to an even 17-17 on the season and two games off the pace in the AL West set by the LA Angels.

"It's better if you complete a game and you don't give up any runs. It's a pretty good way to get a win, but as long as I keep going deep and keep things close, do what I'm supposed to do, things on that will turn around," said McCarthy of his effort.

The Oakland offense was pretty much stagnant until the top of the eighth inning when Cliff Pennington's three-run home run brought in Andy LaRoche and Ryan Sweeney to tie the game. Hideki Matsui contributed a pair of doubles along the way as well.

Set to take the mound for the hosts this afternoon is lefty Jeff Francis, who is still winless on the season after seven appearances. Francis, who is 0-3 with a 5.45 ERA at the moment, last pitched on Tuesday when he gave up five runs for the third straight game, allowing six hits and a season-high four walks over 5 2/3 innings before the Royals pulled out the 6-5 win at home against Baltimore.

Francis, who hails from Canada and spent the first six years of his career over in the National League with the Colorado Rockies, is making his first- ever appearance against the A's today.

Similarly, Oakland starter Tyson Ross is also getting his first-ever look at Kansas City, although the difference here is that the A's right-hander is in just his second season in the big leagues and has been used primarily as a reliever until recently. The California native managed to pick up a win in his first appearance of the 2011 campaign back on April 11 when he threw three shutout innings against the Chicago White Sox, but since then he hasn't been able to get back into the win column.

On Tuesday Ross allowed a season-high eight hits but surrendered just a single run while striking out three over 6 1/3 innings versus Cleveland at home, yet he still failed to figure into the decision.

Kansas City hitters are currently ranked second in the American League with a collective batting average of .268, the squad's slugging percentage of .431 ranking them third thanks in large part to a league-best 10 triples. Aviles, who is one of four players with a pair of triples thus far, leads the team and is among the league leaders with 25 RBI. Despite playing in only 25 of the team's 33 games, the New York native is also first on the squad with eight stolen bases.

As a unit, Oakland hitters ran third from the bottom in the league in terms of slugging (.350), their .235 batting average also close to last in the AL at the moment. Even though he scored a much-needed run yesterday, LaRoche has still had a tough week with more strikeouts (eight) than total bases (seven).

Since 2009 the A's have a record of 7-4 at Kansas City.