Josh Reddick homered and drove in four runs for the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. Jed Lowrie had three hits, including a homer of his own.

So when Eric Sogard went deep, who really cared?

”There was no home run tunnel or anything,” the light-hitting Sogard joked of a rather muted home run celebration that awaited him after rounding the bases during a 10-4 win over the Kansas City Royals. ”They were probably surprised I hit one.”

Sogard went without a homer in 260 at-bats, since April 27, 2012.

It was that kind of day for the Oakland offense, though. The A’s pounded out 15 hits, and everybody in the starting lineup except Chris Young had one against the Royals’ haphazard pitching.

”We got some runs early,” said Josh Donaldson, who had a pair of hits. ”Then it seemed like every time they got a run our offense would answer right back.”

A.J. Griffin (7-6) rebounded from a miserable start against the Cubs to go five innings for the A’s. The only damage he allowed came on solo homers by George Kottaras and Alex Gordon.

Jesse Chavez earned his first career save with four scoreless innings of relief.

”Saved the bullpen, that’s all I was trying to do,” Chavez said.

Luis Mendoza (2-5) allowed five runs in the second inning for the Royals, and was yanked to a round of boos after retiring just four batters. It was the right-hander’s shortest start in exactly five years – since an outing on July 7, 2008, when he was still with Texas.

”He fell behind early, which puts you in a defensive mode,” Kottaras said. ”Once he falls behind, hitters can look for a pitch in a certain zone and took advantage of it. It happens.”

It’s happened twice in a row now: Mendoza gave up four runs on six hits and four walks in just four innings his last time out against Cleveland. He hasn’t won since June 14 at Tampa Bay.

”A rough outing really for our pitching staff today,” Royals manager Ned Yost said.

Mendoza’s struggles began with a single in the second by Yoenis Cespedes. John Jaso added a one-out walk and Reddick’s line drive to left gave Oakland a 2-0 lead.

Mendoza struck out Chris Young before another double by Sogard and back-to-back singles by Coco Crisp and Lowrie knocked him from the game. Chen came in from the bullpen and gave up another base hit to Josh Donaldson before finally getting out of the inning.

Kottaras got the home crowd energized with his homer in the second, but the A’s refused to let the Royals engineer another five-run comeback like they did Thursday against Cleveland. Jaso’s one-out single set the table for Reddick, who launched his fourth homer of the year.

After a breakthrough year in which he hit 32 homers, Reddick had been scuffling until he got to Kansas City. He was hitting just .210 with three homers and 25 RBIs in his first 57 games, but found the expansive outfield off Kauffman Stadium to be to his liking.

”Reddick’s been swinging the bat really well here recently,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said, ”and that’s the next step, to start driving the ball.”

Gordon, who missed the first game of the series after a scary collision with the outfield wall earlier in the week, validated his first All-Star nod a day earlier with his homer. His ninth of the season came with two outs in the fifth inning.

Lowrie answered it with a solo shot of his own in the sixth.

The Royals tried to rally again in the bottom half off A’s reliever Jerry Blevins. Mike Moustakas hit an RBI double and Miguel Tejada an RBI single in which he beat a throw to first with a head-first slide. Chavez ended the rally when he retired Eric Hosmer with the bases loaded.

Sogard’s two-run homer in the seventh ended any thoughts of another Royals comeback.

”We’re in the middle of a tough stretch,” Yost said. ”It started here. We’re 3-3 in this tough stretch. The Yankees are tough, a four-game series. And it’s going to be a tough three-game series in Cleveland. We’ve got to continue to play good baseball if we’re going to be successful this next week. We’re going to have to grind it out and try to find a way to win some ball games.”

— Associated Press —

Major League Baseball announced Saturday that Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Gordon and catcher Salvador Perez have been named American League All-Stars.  Both Royals will be making their first All-Star appearances at the 79th annual Midsummer Classic at Citi Field in New York on Tuesday, July 16.  Both Gordon and Perez were elected to the team via the player vote.

This marks the first time since the 2003 All-Star Game that the Royals have had more than one player representative.  Gordon is the first KC outfielder to be selected to the team since Jermaine Dye in 2000, while Perez is the first Royals’ catcher to be named an All-Star since Darrell Porter in 1980.  Porter was also selected in 1978, but did not play, while the only other catcher in franchise history to attend the All-Star festivities was the first Royal All-Star, Ellie Rodriguez in 1969.

Gordon, a six-year veteran with Kansas City, is batting .290 with 15 doubles, 8 homers and 46 RBI in 81 games.  He came into play Saturday leading the American League in 2-out hitting (.374), tied with Alex Rios for the league-lead in outfield assists (8) and was 10th in the league with 29 multi-hit games.  He had a 12-game hitting streak earlier this season and had walk-off hits against Toronto (April 14), the Chicago White Sox (May 5) and Atlanta (June 26).

Perez is in his second full year in the Major Leagues and is hitting .302 with 15 doubles, 4 homers, 36 RBI in 71 games.  He ranks second among A.L. catchers in batting average (.302) and is third in the league with a .403 average with runners in scoring position.  He has thrown out 10 would-be base stealers, which is tied for third-most in the American League.  He had an 11-game hitting streak from June 5-15 and has 21 RBI since June 1.

— Royals Media Relations —

The Kansas City Royals are starting to embrace quite the never-say-quit mentality.

Trailing in the seventh inning? No need to worry.

Game tied in the eight? Perfect position.

Jarrod Dyson delivered an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs on Saturday, and stingy closer Greg Holland preserved the Royals’ scrappy 4-3 victory over Oakland with a perfect ninth inning that gave Kansas City its first win over the Athletics this season.

”Sometimes games aren’t going to go our way, but we aren’t going to hang our heads,” said Dyson, who snapped an 0-for-11 skid with three hits. ”We’re going to keep battling. You can see it in here, see it out there. Everybody is working hard every day.”

The Royals had rallied to tie the game on a sacrifice fly by Eric Hosmer in the seventh, and then loaded the bases on an error and a pair of walks by reliever Ryan Cook in the eighth.

Dyson, hardly known for his power, showed bunt on his first pitch from Cook (1-2) before hitting a grounder deep behind second base. Shortstop Adam Rosales fielded it cleanly but didn’t even bother with a throw as pinch runner Alcides Escobar scored the go-ahead run.

It was an error on Rosales that kept the inning alive.

”It’s going to stick with me for a little while,” he said.

Aaron Crow (6-3) worked the eighth and Holland handled the ninth for his 20th save, wrapping up Kansas City’s first win in five tries against Oakland this season.

”They’ve been grinder games. Their pitching staff is very, very good. Their starting rotation is very good,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”We just scrapped it. We scrapped it out.”

Mike Moustakas homered and Billy Butler drove in a run for the Royals, while Alex Gordon walked three times and reached on an error in his return to the lineup. He’d missed the last two games after a scary collision with the outfield wall Wednesday night against Cleveland.

”Once I got the Adrenaline going and did some work, it felt pretty good,” Gordon said.

Josh Donaldson homered and drove in two runs to lead the A’s, who struck right away when Josh Reddick sent an RBI single to center field in the first inning.

The Royals tried to get the run back in the bottom half when Miguel Tejada singled and reached second on a groundout. Moments later, Elliot Johnson hit a grounder toward third with two outs and appeared to be safe when the throw pulled first baseman Brandon Moss off the bag.

Umpire Marty Foster ruled him out, though, and never wavered from his decision despite some rather animated objections from Yost and first base coach Rusty Kuntz.

A bright sun and flat sky started to cause problems after that.

The A’s had two aboard with one out in the third when Donaldson hit a high popup down the right-field line. Johnson chased it from second and outfielder David Lough sprinted in from right while Hosmer tried to camp under it from first base – all to no avail.

The ball fell in fair territory, allowing John Jaso to score for a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Dyson led off with a weak pop foul behind the plate, but Jaso couldn’t locate the ball in the sun after discarding his mask. The A’s catcher comically had to cover his head with his glove while the ball plopped onto the field next to him.

Dyson followed with a single to right, and after a stolen base and errant pickoff throw, he scampered home from third on Butler’s groundout to get the Royals within 2-1.

Moustakas added his two-out homer in the fourth to tie the game, and Donaldson’s solo shot leading off the sixth restored Oakland’s one-run cushion. The Royals knotted the game again when they loaded the bases with one out in the seventh and Hosmer hit a sacrifice fly to center.

Jarrod Parker wound up going 6 1-3 innings for the A’s after leaving his last start with tightness in his right hamstring, but it was the bullpen that let them down.

”That was a very poor game,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. ”The way we started and the way we ended. A very bad game for us.”

— Associated Press —

Tommy Milone shut out the Kansas City Royals for eight innings, and then got in just enough trouble in the ninth to ensure that Grant Balfour would have a nice, easy save chance.

A save that will go down in Oakland history, too.

Balfour gave up a run-scoring single to Billy Butler before retiring the final two batters of the game Friday night, preserving the A’s 6-3 victory and notching his 40th consecutive save to tie Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley’s franchise record.

”You know, it’s an accomplishment. Definitely,” Balfour said. ”I don’t like to look into it too much – I’m superstitious, obviously. But I never knew about this, and it’s not something I set out to do. It just happened. I still have a lot of work to do.”

Balfour has 22 saves this season to match the mark that Eckersley set from Sept. 15, 1991-Aug. 7, 1992, this one helping the A’s (51-36) win for the seventh time in their last nine games.

”That’s pretty remarkable, but when you look at Grant, it’s not surprising what he’s able to do,” Milone said. ”That’s pretty cool for him. I’m happy.”

Happy enough to get into trouble in the ninth for him?

”We can go there if you want,” Milone said, grinning. ”Yeah, I guess.”

Milone (8-7) was in control before Alcides Escobar and Eric Hosmer drove in runs to get the Royals within 6-2 with one out in the ninth. Balfour came on and gave up the single to Butler, but he managed to retire Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas to end the game.

”Like him, I don’t like to talk about it a whole lot, but you’re asking me the question,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of Balfour’s save streak. ”Pretty phenomenal.”

Milone, who had been battered in his last three starts, outpitched Wade Davis (4-7) in another strong night from Oakland’s pitching staff. The A’s had put together 18 1-3 innings without giving up a run before the Royals plated their three in the ninth.

Milone was two outs shy of racking up Oakland’s third shutout in its last eight games.

”A tough eight innings. Tommy Milone was really on top of his game,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”What makes him so tough on nights like tonight, he can command his fastball to both sides of the plate, but when that changeup is on, it’s almost unhittable.”

The recent history for Milone and Davis pointed to runs-a-plenty on Friday night. Milone had been struggling lately, and Davis was yanked after one-plus inning last Saturday.

So naturally, the two of them took turns mowing through hitters.

Milone retired his first 11 batters, and only twice allowed a ball to get out of the infield through the first three innings. The left-hander finally gave up a single to Hosmer with two outs in the fourth, but that was it until David Lough’s two-out single in the sixth.

”We were just trying to take pitches and try to see as many pitches as possible,” said the Royals’ Lorenzo Cain, ”but he was pounding the zone.”

Davis only needed 10 pitches to get through the first inning against Oakland, and the right-hander set down nine straight before Josh Reddick’s double in the third. Eric Sogard came through with a timely single to shallow left field that gave the scrappy A’s a 1-0 lead.

Davis cruised through the fourth, and then issued a leadoff walk to John Jaso in the fifth. Reddick followed with a triple to right, and he scampered home on Coco Crisp’s sacrifice fly.

The A’s added three more in the ninth, two of them when Cain misplayed a line drive in right field that bounced off his glove – ”I just flat-out missed it,” he said.

The Royals tried to rally in the ninth behind back-to-back doubles by Lough and Escobar, and consecutive singles by Hosmer and Butler. But the unflappable Balfour got Cain and Moustakas on harmless groundouts to record his historic save.

”I hope you’re not jinxing him by talking about it,” Reddick said with a smile.

— Associated Press —