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Gathright leads Royals past Athletics

Sep 5, 2008 - 1:22 AM By Alan Eskew PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Joey Gathright was put in for defense in the ninth, but it was his offense that lifted the Kansas City Royals to victory.

Gathright laced an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to rally the Royals to a 5-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday in the first game of a doubleheader.

Esteban German led off and reached on an error by Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby. He moved to second on David DeJesus' sacrifice bunt. Mike Aviles was then intentionally walked and Gathright delivered his decisive hit against reliever Joey Devine (4-1).

"I was going to bunt because I looked up and third baseman was back, and I heard them yelling at them so he came in and that just took the bunt away," Gathright said. "I know he's throwing a sinker, so I just try to stay inside it and it got through.

"I was trying to go to that side of the field, not necessarily down the line, but that was my objective to hit it over there to that hole and it got past him."

It was Gathright's third RBI since the All-Star break.

"It was more of a defensive move, but I'm glad it worked out offensively," manager Trey Hillman said of putting Gathright in the game. "I told him when he was on deck that it's still a good time to look for a base hit bunt, check the defense. It was good to see him square up the first pitch."

The Royals have won five straight over the A's and have won back-to-back game for the first time since a three-game winning streak from August 2-4.

Joakim Soria (2-3) tossed two scoreless innings, allowing one single for the victory.

Royals starter Brian Bannister, who is winless in 12 starts since a June 23 victory over Colorado, was staked to a 4-0 lead in the third, but was unable to hold it.

The A's, aided by an Aviles fielding error, scored three unearned runs in the fifth. Aviles fumbled Ryan Sweeney's grounder after Eric Patterson had walked with one out. Crosby's single scored Patterson and Jack Cust's two-out opposite-field double scored Sweeney and Cust.

"The biggest part of the game was that fifth inning and they got some momentum," Bannister said. "It took me longer than I would have liked to shut it down. I'm just going back to my old fastball. The characteristic of that is I got a lot of fly balls to right field... you always want to win, but we won."

Daric Barton, who has hit safely in 11 of 12 games, then led off the sixth with his ninth home run to tie the score at 4-4. The A's missed an opportunity to seize the lead in the sixth as Aaron Cunningham tripled with one out, but failed to get him home.

"I threw the one pitch to Barton, where he likes it, but I stayed aggressive all night," Bannister said.

Bannister was pulled after seven innings and 108 pitches, giving up four runs - one earned - and seven hits, while striking out three and walking two.

The Royals had stroked six consecutive hits with one out in the third off Dana Eveland to score four runs. Billy Butler, who extended his hitting streak to nine games, had a two-run double down the first base line, giving him 10 RBI in the streak. Jose Guillen scored on a wild pitch and Ryan Shealy's single scored Butler with the final run of the inning.

"Eveland had one rough inning, but he settled in after that and got us six in innings in a tie game, so we're satisfied with that," A's manager Bob Geren said. "Devine's performance was excellent. He just didn't get the breaks."

Eveland left after six innings, allowing four runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking none.

"I gave up four hits to leadoff hitters," Eveland said. "I'm sure that led into the decision. I want to throw as many innings as I can and build myself up to a 200-innings per year guy. There were only two hard hit balls that whole (third) inning. I think I gave up six hits and four of them were soft."

Huston Street replaced Eveland and threw two scoreless innings.