A’s Unleash Royal Beating in 21-3 Win

After the beating Oakland administered to Kansas City, the Athletics actually felt sorry for the Royals.

Oakland’s 21-3 rout Sunday at Kansas City was its most lopsided victory since the A’s moved to California and the worst loss for the Royals since their franchise was formed in 1969.

“It’s no fun being on the other end,” Oakland Manager Art Howe said after the A’s collected 21 hits, including four home runs.

“Having as many rebuilding teams as I’ve had, I’ve been there many times,” Howe said. “You wish you could just throw out the white flag and say, ‘OK, you win.’ We certainly weren’t trying to pile on.”

Every Oakland starter had at least one hit, one run batted in and one run scored as the Royals used seven pitchers, including Jeff D’Amico, who was making his first major league start.

“We make no excuses. We have young people,” Kansas City Manager Tony Muser said. “I think you have to sit back and not panic.”

Starting the day with a .261 team average that was next-to-last in the American League, Oakland scored 10 runs in the third and five in the fourth en route to its club season-high fifth consecutive victory.

“Individually, you don’t want to relax at all,” Oakland’s Ben Grieve said. “You still want to go up there and get good at-bats. But you do feel sorry for them a little.”

The margin of victory broke Oakland’s previous mark of 16 runs set at Milwaukee in 1985. The Royals’ record for margin of defeat had been a 17-0 loss to Detroit on July 20, 1991.

The 21 runs matched the A’s highest total since leaving Philadelphia in 1954 and were the most scored by a major league team this year. The other time the A’s reached 21 came against Boston on July 14, 1969.

“You want to win the game. But you don’t want to embarrass anybody,” said Jeremy Giambi, who was traded from Kansas City to Oakland this year. “It’s a fine line. You don’t want to be too aggressive and start running in people’s face. I still have a lot of friends over there.”

Seattle 10, Minnesota 2--The heart of the Mariner order--Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud--went nine for 11 with eight RBIs, eight runs scored and 23 total bases at Minneapolis.

Rodriguez was four for five, including his 19th homer, and scored four runs.

Martinez, who scored three times, hit his 20th homer and walked four times.

Olerud was four for five and drove in four runs.

Toronto 5, Boston 1--Raul Mondesi homered twice and Frank Castillo pitched seven shutout innings at Boston.

Castillo (3-5) gave up two singles and a double to go with two walks while striking out six. The Blue Jays extended a franchise record of 17 consecutive games with a home run.

Toronto improved to a season-best four games above .500 (37-33) and moved to within one game of the Red Sox, who lead the East.

Tampa Bay 6, Texas 1--Rick White pitched three scoreless innings in relief and Bubba Trammell drove in three runs to help the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.

White (2-4), who has pitched more innings than any other AL reliever (54), extended his streak of scoreless appearances to seven by limiting the Rangers to three hits after entering the game when starter Bryan Rekar was removed because of back stiffness.

Cleveland 9, Detroit 4--The Indians rallied from a 4-1 deficit at Detroit to end a six-game losing streak--their longest in nine years.

Roberto Alomar, who finished with four RBIs, hit a two-run single during a three-run seventh inning. He had a two-run double in a five-run eighth.