By MATT PIKE
Michael Wacha pitched six scoreless innings to earn his 10th win of the season, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Athletics 4-2 on Saturday night.
Wacha (10-13) gave up two hits and three walks while striking out five for his first victory in more than three weeks. It’s the fourth consecutive year and sixth time in his 13 major league seasons that Wacha has won 10 or more games.
Mike Yastrzemski scored the opening run of the game on a throwing error by Shea Langeliers in the first inning. In the fifth inning the Royals extended the lead with Michael Massey singling to lead off the inning and advancing to third on Yastrzemki’s one-out single. After Bobby Witt Jr. flied out, Vinnie Pasquantino blooped a double to left field that fell between A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson and sliding left fielder Tyler Soderstrom as two runs scored.
With John Schreiber on the mound in the seventh inning, the A’s got onto the scoreboard to cut into the Kansas City lead as Carlos Cortes doubled to drive in Darrel Hernaiz. Then in the eighth inning, Langeliers doubled off Angel Zerpa to score AL Rookie of the Year favorite Nick Kurtz for the A’s final run.
Kansas City added their final run in the ninth inning, an RBI single from Witt Jr driving in Tyler Tolbert. In the bottom half of the inning, Carlos Estévez worked the ninth for his major league-leading 42nd save.
At the plate, Yastrzemski was 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, scoring two runs. Witt Jr was 2-for-5 with an RBI. Pasquantino was 1-for-5 with a double and two RBIs
Cole Ragans (3-3, 5.02 ERA) starts the season finale for the Royals on Sunday against Brady Basso (1-0, 1.74) for the A’s. First pitch is at 2:05pm, pregame coverage will begin at 1:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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