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GAME LOG
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Ben Grieve agreed with Kansas City's decision to intentionally walk the batter ahead of him. Then he
made the Royals pay for it.
Grieve hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the seventh inning and the Oakland Athletics beat Kansas City 8-3 Friday night for their 12th win in 15 games.
Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and Ramon Hernandez added
back-to-back-to-back homers off Dan Murray in the eighth, helping
the A's win their third straight.
Royals reliever Dan Reichert (3-4) took over with a 2-1 edge in
the seventh and promptly blew the lead by allowing consecutive
singles to Miguel Tejada, pinch-hitter Jeremy Giambi and Terrence
Long.
Randy Velarde grounded into a double play, moving Jeremy Giambi
to third. Jason Giambi was intentionally walked and Grieve, in a
7-for-46 slide, hit his 10th homer for a 5-2 lead.
"It didn't really cross my mind to do something extra because
they walked Jason to get to me. I would have walked Jason, too,"
Grieve said. "That was the obvious situation. I think he might
have been trying to go inside and he left it out over the plate."
Said Athletics manager Art Howe: "I would have done the same
thing. Jason's been swinging a great bat for us. I'm real happy
that Ben was able to step up and get a big home run for us. I was
just hoping for a base hit."
Royals manager Tony Muser was disgusted with the fact that his
team leads the majors in home runs allowed with 110.
"We're just making a ton of mistakes up and in the middle of
the plate," he said. "For me, it's location of the fastball.
Grieve is a dangerous high-ball hitter. He threw one right up
there."
Doug Jones (2-1) allowed four hits in 2 2/3 innings of shutout
relief and Jeff Tam pitched three innings for his second save,
allowing a seventh-inning homer to Johnny Damon. Tam had pitched 44
innings coming in, the most by a major league pitcher who hadn't
allowed a home run this year.
Kansas City's Mac Suzuki walked his first three batters, then
retired Grieve on a double play as a run scored. Suzuki was helped
by Jermaine Dye, who reached over the right-field fence to rob Matt
Stairs of a home run.
Oakland also made a nice defensive play, when Joe Randa was
thrown out at the plate by Tejada's relay trying to score from
first on Todd Dunwoody's double.
Suzuki allowed just the one run and one hit -- Sal Fasano's
leadoff single in the fifth -- in five innings.
Oakland's Omar Olivares faced one batter, then left the game
after straining his right shoulder. He was relieved by Scott
Service, who pitched 3 1/3 innings in his longest outing of the
season.
"I told them I would give them as much as I could," Service
said. "Everybody in that lineup is hitting the ball great. They're
all league leaders."
Kansas City took a 2-1 lead in the fourth after Tejada misplayed
Randa's grounder to shortstop for a two-base error. Jones relieved
with the bases loaded and gave up Rey Sanchez's two-out, two-run single.
Game notes
Dunwoody, in 1-for-16 slump coming in, went 4-for-4 to
raise his average from .063 to .250. .... Jason Giambi had three walks to take the major league lead (62).
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Oakland Clubhouse
Kansas City Clubhouse
Oakland A's propose a move to Santa Clara
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