Athletics-Royals preview
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Oakland Athletics dread facing left-handed pitchers.
The A's have lost 18 of their past 24 games in which the opposing club starts a left-hander. They are 15-23, a .395 winning percentage, the worst in the majors when opponents start a southpaw.
The A's will see one of the best left-handers in the American League Tuesday night when the Kansas City Royals will start Danny Duffy, who is 11-2 with a 3.13 ERA, while striking out a team-leading 167 in 155 1/3 innings. He has struck out 10 or more in three games, including fanning 10 Minnesota Twins with no walks in six innings in his previous start, a no-decision.
Duffy is undefeated in five career outings, four of them starts, against Oakland. He is 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA vs. Oakland, working one scoreless inning in relief on April 16.
Plus Duffy is undefeated at Kauffman Stadium this year, 6-0 with a 3.38 ERA. His last home loss was Sept. 5, 2015. Duffy's seven victories since the All-Star break are tied for the second most in the majors, despite not winning since Aug. 21.
Duffy has held left-handed hitters to a .177 batting average, which is first among AL pitchers who have faced at least 100 lefty swingers.
The Royals are desperate for a victory to keep in the American League playoff race. They are four games in arrears in the AL wild-card standings with 19 games remaining. Plus they must climb over five teams to get to the second wild-card rung, a formidable challenge.
"It means we're playing meaningful games," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "We still feel like we're in it. It makes the season more exciting than when you're not in it and it's great for the fans."
It was not exciting for the Royals players or great for the fans on Monday night, as the last-place A's thrashed the Royals 16-3. Six Royals pitchers combined to not only give up 17 hits, an A's season high, but also walked 10. Two of the hits were a pair of three-run homers to Khris Davis and Marcus Semien.
"It's great to have a game like that," A's manager Bob Melvin said.
Yost said it is easy to forget a game like that.
"These games are easy to turn the page, a lot tougher than losing a one-run game or a game in extra innings," Yost said. "We just got beat. We didn't play good; we didn't pitch good and we got beat."
The A's will start right-hander Jharel Cotton, who limited the Los Angeles Angels to one run and two hits over 6 1/3 innings in his major league debut Wednesday. He struck out three and walked two. Cotton is one of the three players the A's received from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Josh Reddick and Rich Hill. In six starts with Triple-A Nashville, Cotton went 3-1 with a 2.82 ERA. Overall, with Nashville and Oklahoma City, he was 11-6 with a 4.31 ERA in 28 games, 22 of them starts. He led the Pacific Coast League with a career-high 155 strikeouts.
