Will Smith, a 23-year-old left-hander, made his ninth major league start Wednesday night and pitched like a veteran.

Smith went seven strong innings, Chris Getz doubled home the go-ahead run and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Oakland Athletics 3-2.

Smith (4-4) limited the A’s to two runs and five hits, while striking out five and walking one. In winning his past two starts, Smith has allowed four runs and 11 hits in 14 innings.

“Will did a good job of battling without his best stuff,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I thought his fastball was flat at times. He battled through the sixth and seventh and kept us in the game. Early in the game, he was struggling to get the ball down with all of his pitches.

“The thing that was so impressive about tonight’s game, a young pitcher on the mound without his best stuff and he’s competing his tail off and keeping his club in the game and that’s a tremendous sign for a young pitcher to be able to do that. I was very impressed with that. He ended up getting us through seven innings. There were times I wasn’t sure we could get him through the fifth.

“When you’re a young pitcher and you don’t have your best stuff, you know it and you tend to fight yourself in those situations. You try to be too perfect and just end up getting your brains beat in. But this kid went out tonight and competed his tail off.”

Smith acknowledged his stuff was lacking.

“You’re not going to have your best stuff every single night,” Smith said. “So it’s a battle sometime and tonight was a battle. I had zero fastball command. It was really spotty. Sometime it would be there and sometimes it wouldn’t. I was just struggling with that. I had to battle through it. We had some amazing defense. Our defense is unreal.”

With two outs in the seventh, Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain and Getz hit consecutive doubles, the first Kansas City extra-base hits of the game. Cain, who was in a 2-for-24 skid, doubled home Hosmer to tie the score.

Left-handed reliever Sean Doolittle was brought in to face Getz. After fouling off five pitches with two strikes, Getz stroked an opposite-field double on the 11th pitch to bring home Cain.

“I don’t know if that’s the best at-bat of the year, but it’s darn sure in the top five. An 11-pitch at-bat against a tough left-hander to drive in the winning run was a great job,” Yost said.

A’s starter Brandon McCarthy (6-4) lost for the first time since April 21, snapping his career-best six-game winning streak. McCarthy, who is 6-1 with a 2.45 ERA in his past nine starts, gave up three runs, two earned, and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, while walking none and striking out four.

“It stunk,” McCarthy said. “It was a bad loss for us across the board. These are games we expect to win and games we have been winning all year. I’m not happy with myself. There are a lot of things I could have done better. Giving up runs, I don’t like to do that. I don’t like doing it late in the game. I don’t like doing it with two outs.”

The Royals scored an unearned run in the first. Alcides Escobar, who reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Derek Norris’ throwing error. Escobar scored on Billy Butler’s grounder to Josh Donaldson, who threw home high and late.

The Athletics tied it in the second. Chris Carter led off with a double and he stopped at third on Donaldson’s single and scored on Brandon Moss’ single.

Donaldson, who was recalled Tuesday from Triple-A Sacramento, homered just inside the left-field foul pole in the fourth inning to give the A’s a 2-1 lead.

Greg Holland worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to collect his fourth save in five opportunities.

— Associated Press —

Jeremy Guthrie learned in June what not to do against the Oakland Athletics.

Guthrie allowed only three singles in seven innings, and the Kansas City Royals rolled to a 5-0 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night.

Guthrie, who struck out a season-high eight, ran his scoreless streak to 15 innings, the longest streak of his career. He has yielded eight hits and struck out 14 in his past two starts, victories over the A’s and the Chicago White Sox.

Guthrie (5-12) is 2/3 in five starts with the Royals, who acquired him in a July 20 trade with Colorado for left-hander Jonathan Sanchez.

In a June 12 start against the A’s at Colorado, Guthrie allowed seven runs and eight hits, including three home runs and two walks in five innings.

“When I pitched against them earlier in the year every pitch I threw was the exact wrong pitch at the wrong time,” Guthrie said. “So I had a nice blueprint on what not to do. I don’t think I threw too many duplicate pitches of what they punished me.

“I gave up an awful lot of hits and an awful lot of long home runs in a short amount of time. They gave me a blueprint on how to do a better job.”

A’s manager Bob Melvin noticed the change in Guthrie’s plan.

“He’s a guy we handled pretty well in Colorado.” Melvin said. “He’s coming off his best game this year, and he might have been riding some confidence from that. But I’d like to think we could get some better at-bats against him. We didn’t have a lot of good at-bats tonight.

“He worked ahead and had a good downward plane on his fastball, good movement.”

Guthrie, who is eligible for free agency after this season, could be pitching his way into the Royals’ plans for next year.

“I just felt along with Dayton (Moore, general manager), three or four starts and that would get him back on track,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He’s definitely on track. It’s not really fluky stuff. You can see where this could be extended out start after start. I’m really liking what I’m seeing right now.”

Guthrie was 4-11 with a 6.31 ERA as a Rockies starter. He credits Royals pitching coach Dave Eiland for helping him with adjustments.

“Had I not come over here and been able to work with those types of people, I might still be banging my head and still be making the same mistakes.” Guthrie said. “It wasn’t about getting settled in as much as it was getting better and making some adjustments.”

Tim Collins and Greg Holland completed the shutout for Kansas City. Collins struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth inning, boosting his total to 77 — a Royals’ strikeout record for a left-handed reliever.

The A’s failed to get a runner past second base and were shut out for a major league-leading 14th time.

Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer delivered run-scoring singles in the Royals’ five-run fifth inning that also featured sacrifice flies by Chris Getz and Billy Butler.

Kansas City also scored an unearned run after Oakland second baseman Jemile Weeks failed to handle Alcides Escobar’s bouncer. That allowed Lorenzo Cain, who had walked, to score.

A’s rookie right-hander Jarrod Parker (7-7) was pulled after 4 2/3 innings. He gave up five runs, five hits and two walks. Parker is 2-4 with a 6.15 ERA, and batters are hitting .309 against him in his past seven starts.

He was 5-3 with a 2.46 ERA and an opponents’ batting average of .209 against him in his first 13 starts.

In the third inning, Josh Donaldson and Coco Crisp singled, but Donaldson was put out in a rundown between second and third. Right fielder Jeff Francoeur earned his 13th assist on the play, tying him for the major league lead among outfielders.

— Associated Press —