Kennedy, bullpen roughed up as Royals fall 16-0 to A’s

KANSAS CITY - Matt Olson and Dustin Fowler made lots of noise in Oakland's lineup, combining for four home runs and nine RBIs, while Frankie Montas silenced Kansas City's bats.

Olson slugged two homers and drove in a career-high five runs, Montas pitched a career-best eight innings and the Athletics pounded out a 16-0 victory over the Royals on Friday night. Fowler also homered twice and had four RBIs for Oakland, which leads the majors with 51 road home runs in 28 games.

Montas (2-0) made his second start since being called up from the minors last Sunday and limited the Royals to six hits and used groundball double plays to end the fourth and fifth innings. He lowered his ERA to 0.64.

"The sinker was really working for me and, really, I was just trying to execute pitch by pitch," Montas said through an interpreter. "I know that both starts, I've done well, but I can't get my guard down. I have to keep working and keep doing what I'm doing."

Olson hit a 428-foot solo shot in the third and a 456-foot three-run blast in a seven-run third -- both off Ian Kennedy -- for his third career multi-homer game and first this season.

"They still count the same, but yeah, I just got a pretty good hold of all of those," Olson said. "But honestly, just happy to be putting consistent at-bats together and barreling some stuff up."

He also drew a bases-loaded walk from Brian Flynn in the ninth to score Matt Chapman.

The A's sent 10 men to the plate in the third against Kennedy (1-6) and the first six reached, including Fowler's solo home run. Fowler also added a three-run homer off Jason Adam in Oakland's seven-run ninth for his first multi-homer game.

Khris Davis, who came off the disabled list Thursday, singled in two runs in the third, and Jed Lowrie walked with the bases loaded.

Kennedy threw 46 of his 71 pitches in the third, his last inning. He gave up eight runs and seven hits with two walks. Since August 20, 2016, Kennedy is 1-12 with a 5.77 ERA in 26 starts at Kauffman Stadium.

"The big one was just the fastball I threw right down the middle to Olson," Kennedy said. "Before that, I was putting guys in hitter's counts. For the most part, it's been a grind for the last four, five whatever starts it is now.

"I felt like this was the best week of work I've had. I felt good going into it, like I was really positive. I was working on things out of my delivery. I had zero to show for it and that's what the really frustrating thing is."

Whit Merrifield had three of the Kansas City's eight hits. Jon Jay went 0 for 4, ending his 12-game hitting streak.

"Ian was really good in the first inning and not bad in the second," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "He gave up a home run on a high fastball and really started struggling. It was almost a 50-pitch third inning. It's just one of those nights where we really didn't pitch very well."

The Royals have lost 20 of 29 home games.

 

TRAINER'S ROOM

Royals: 1B Lucas Duda (right foot plantar fasciitis) and 3B Cheslor Cuthbert (lower back strain) remain on the disabled list. Royals manager Ned Yost said they are not close to going on a rehab assignment.

UP NEXT

Athletics: RHP Trevor Cahill, who had an 8.22 ERA in 10 appearances last season with Kansas City, will start against his former club.

Royals: RHP Jason Hammel is 2-0 with a 0.73 ERA in his past two starts.