Truce? Royals, A's meet for first time since acrimonious April
It's time to see whether the bad blood between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics from more than two months ago has carried over.
These clubs open a three-game set Friday night in Oakland, meeting for the first time since a melee-filled weekend back in April.
Kansas City (41-28) took two of three at home from Oakland from April 17-19 in the teams' first matchup since last year's AL wild-card game. The series also marked Billy Butler's return to face his former team.
None of that became the story, though, as the teams cleared the benches in all three games. The issues started when Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar was run over by the Athletics' Brett Lawrie covering second base in the series opener.
Lawrie was plunked the next day in what Oakland (34-41) saw as retaliation. Kansas City's Lorenzo Cain was then hit by a pitch from Scott Kazmir in a series finale in which Escobar, Kelvin Herrera, manager Ned Yost, pitching coach Dave Eiland and bench coach Don Wakamatsu were all tossed for Kansas City.
Herrera drew a five-game ban for throwing behind Lawrie in the 4-2 win in the finale.
The Royals, who started this nine-game trip by taking two of three over Seattle, insist there won't be a repeat of such behavior on their end.
"You know, for me, it's over," Escobar told MLB's official website. "I have no trouble with them. I just want to go there and play baseball."
Lawrie called it "probably the worst series of baseball that I've ever played."
"Water under the bridge. Just play baseball, that's the way I look at it," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. "That was an uncomfortable three-game series to have to play through."
Kansas City has taken eight of 11 from Oakland since the start of 2014, including the playoff game. The Athletics seek their first six-game win streak since July 3-8, 2014.
Cain is expected to return to the lineup after missing Wednesday's 8-2 win with a hamstring strain.
Mike Moustakas is hitting .389 with 10 RBIs in a nine-game hitting streak. Escobar is batting .439 with eight runs scored in his last 10 games.
Oakland's lone victory in the previous series against Kansas City came courtesy of Jesse Hahn (5-5, 3.40 ERA), who pitched 5 1/3 innings of three-hit ball in the 5-0 win April 18 in his first career outing against the Royals.
The right-hander improved to 3-0 with a 2.52 ERA in his last four starts by giving up one run over 7 2/3 innings in Saturday's 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Royals starter Edinson Volquez (7-4, 3.33) moved to 3-0 with a 3.63 ERA in his last three outings that same day by yielding four runs in 5 1/3 innings in a 7-4 win over Boston.
The right-hander hasn't faced the A's since 2007. The Oakland hitter he has faced the most is Ike Davis, who is 2 for 9 in this matchup.
The A's completed a three-game sweep at Texas with a 6-3 victory Thursday. Stephen Vogt went 3 for 5 to improve to 14 for 28 in a seven-game hitting streak.
Rookie Billy Burns, who wasn't with Oakland in April, is batting .362 during a 15-game hitting streak.
