Seth Lugo piled up 10 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings and Kyle Isbel hit a home run as the Kansas City Royals beat the visiting Oakland Athletics 5–3 on Saturday.
Salvador Perez had two RBIs, while Vinnie Pasquantino and Nelson Velazquez each had one for the Royals, who can sweep the three-game series with a win on Sunday.
Velazquez, Michael Massey and Maikel Garcia each had two hits. Garcia scored two runs.
James McArthur allowed two singles to start the ninth before retiring the next three batters to convert his 11th save in 14 chances.
Lugo (7–1) surrendered two runs on six hits and tallied double-digit strikeouts for the second straight start. He recorded a career-high 12 punchouts last Sunday.
Seth Brown hit a two-run home run, while Abraham Toro, Brent Rooker and Max Schuemann had two hits apiece as Oakland lost its season-high seventh straight game.
The Athletics trailed 4–2 with nobody on and two outs in the seventh inning before hitting three straight singles off Kansas City reliever John Schreiber. Rooker’s RBI single to left made it 4–3.
The Royals immediately regained their two-run cushion in the bottom of the seventh when Isbel hammered Lucas Erceg’s first pitch just over the wall in right-center for his fourth home run of the season.
The Royals went ahead 3–2 in the fifth inning when Garcia golfed a one-out double to deep left-center before Pasquantino scorched a two-strike, two-out RBI single to right.
Kansas City added on in the sixth after Massey blooped a leadoff double just inside the left-field line and scored on Velazquez’s single, which chased Oakland starter Ross Stripling after five-plus innings.
Stripling (1–8) surrendered four runs on nine hits and struck out two without walking a batter.
The Royals ambushed Stripling in the first inning. Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr. singled to lead off the frame before Perez plated them with a one-out single to make it 2–0.
Stripling retired the next eight Kansas City hitters until MJ Melendez yanked a two-out double in the fourth.
The Athletics pulled even in the second inning when Brown tattooed a two-run blast an estimated 445 feet to dead center.
