Athletics Push Royal Streak to 19

The Kansas City Royals lost their 19th straight game Friday night, moving within two defeats of the American League record, and Jay Payton homered to help the Oakland Athletics end a four-game skid with a 4-0 victory.

Rich Harden (10-5) pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings to win for the first time in four outings since a four-start winning streak. He didn’t give up a hit until Mike Sweeney’s one-out double in the fourth.

Nick Swisher hit a pair of RBI doubles, playing in honor of his late grandmother after missing four games to attend her funeral in West Virginia. The A’s welcomed back their rookie right fielder, who arrived in the Bay Area early Friday. He wore Betty Swisher’s “BLS” initials on his armbands and pointed to the sky after his hits.

Kansas City (38-82), owner of the worst record in baseball, lost its 12th straight road game to tie the club’s longest single-season mark, set by the 1997 squad. The Royals were swept in a three-game series in Seattle and must now face the A’s other top pitcher today: 11-game winner Barry Zito. Oakland swept a three-game series from the Royals on Aug. 5-7, outscoring Kansas City, 32-5.

Baltimore lost an AL-record 21 in a row at the start of the 1988 season. The major league mark since 1900 is 23 straight losses by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1961.

The Royals haven’t won since beating the Chicago White Sox, 6-5, in 13 innings on July 27.

“We’re still playing a game that millions of boys would love to be playing,” said Sweeney, whose visit with a 15-year-old friend and cancer patient in Seattle helped lend perspective. “Here we are pouting about a tough spell we’re going through.”

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Worse yet

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Longest losing streaks in AL history:

*--* TEAM YEAR STREAK Baltimore 1988 21 Boston 1906 20 Philadelphia 1916 20 Philadelphia 1943 20 Detroit 1975 19 Kansas City 2005 19

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