Moscoso Takes No-Hit Bid Into 8th, A's Beat Royals
OAKLAND (CBS/AP) - Guillermo Moscoso held Kansas City hitless until rookie Salvador Perez singled with two outs in the eighth inning, and the Oakland Athletics beat the Royals 7-0 Wednesday.
Moscoso (8-8) wound up allowing two hits in 8 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out four.
Moscoso set an Oakland record by retiring 30 consecutive hitters - the final 13 against Seattle last Friday and the first 17 against the Royals. He walked Kansas City's Alcides Escobar with two outs in the sixth.
Perez broke up the no-hit bid by lining a clean, opposite-field field single to right.
Moscoso recorded 16 of his outs on fly balls to the outfield, 10 to center fielder Coco Crisp. Crisp's diving catch on Billy Butler's sinking liner ended the first inning.
Butler's eight-pitch at-bat in the ninth ended with A's third baseman Scott Sizemore making two errors on the play. That prompted Oakland manager Bob Melvin to bring in Fautino De Los Santos, who got the final out on one pitch.
Jemile Weeks had four hits and drove in a run for the A's, who won for the fifth time in seven games. Sizemore doubled home two runs and Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham and Adam Rosales also drove in runs.
Bruce Chen (10-7) allowed six runs on eight hits in his 6 1-3 innings.
Crisp, after missing four games with a sore right foot, doubled in the first inning, stole his 40th base and scored on Willingham's sacrifice fly.
The A's added another run in the fourth when left fielder Alex Gordon misplayed Michael Taylor's fly ball into a two-base error, allowing Kurt Suzuki to score.
Earlier, Taylor lost a hit when he was thrown at first base by strong-armed right fielder Jeff Francoeur. The 9-3 putout was just the fifth in the AL since 1974.
NOTES: The Royals have a major league-best 48 outfield assists, 25 of them at home plate. Francoeur has 95 career outfield assists, most in the majors since he made his debut in 1995. ... A's IF Brandon Allen was given the day off. ... Melvin said he'll wait until after Thursday's off-day to decide if he wants to use an extra pitcher into the rotation, with LHP Josh Outman the leading candidate. ... RHP Brandon McCarthy (8-7, 3.41) will start for the A's at the Texas Rangers on Friday. McCarthy has thrown back-to-back complete games, including a three-hit shutout in his last start. ... RHP Luke Hochevar (10-10, 4.76) starts Thursday's game in Seattle for the Royals. Hochevar will pitch at Safeco Field for the first time. He's coming off an impressive victory in which he did not allow an earned run in eight innings. He's 5-2 with a 3.51 ERA since the All-Star break. ... Crisp became the 10th A's player to record 40 stolen bases in a season.
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