Much of the crowd at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night had no doubt turned out to see the Brewers’ Zack Greinke face his former team for the first time.

By the sixth inning, their attention had shifted squarely to the Royals’ Luis Mendoza.

He carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning before the Kansas City bullpen bailed him out of trouble, and Billy Butler’s go-ahead single in the eighth inning gave all those fans reason to celebrate with a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee.

”Every inning it’s like, ‘OK, no hits this inning.’ Of course I knew it was a no-hitter,” said Mendoza, who has shuffled between the bullpen and rotation much of the season.

”You have to keep it a close game,” he said, ”because Greinke’s a great pitcher.”

The only real mistake Greinke made was to Alex Gordon leading off the game. He sent a pitch soaring over the right-field wall to give Kansas City the early lead.

Gordon came through again when he faced Francisco Rodriguez (0-4) leading off the eighth. His double put him in scoring position, and a sacrifice bunt by Chris Getz moved him to third, giving Butler the chance to bring him home with a base hit to center field.

Jonathan Broxton came in for the ninth inning and put runners on the corners with one out, but struck out pinch hitter George Kottaras and got fellow pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad to ground out to shortstop, ending the game and wrapping up his 15th save of the season.

”Some closers are like that,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. ”They come into the game and at the end of the day, he gets the job done.”

Mendoza certainly got the job done.

He didn’t allow a hit until Ryan Braun singled leading off the seventh, and then he walked Aramis Ramirez. Aaron Crow came in and limited the damage to Rickie Weeks’ tying single, and Greg Holland (2-2) survived a shaky eighth inning to get the game to Broxton.

The victory snapped the Royals’ four-game losing streak.

”We ran into one of the better pitchers in baseball, if not the best on any given night,” Butler said. ”You can argue Mendoza out-pitched him.”

Greinke was chosen by the Royals in the first round of the 2002 draft, and they stuck by him through the well-documented personal issues that forced him to leave the game for a while.

He returned to become one of baseball’s best pitchers, going 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA in 2009 to win the American League Cy Young Award. He regressed only slightly the following year, and was eventually dealt to Milwaukee after the 2010 season.

The Royals picked up their starting shortstop, Alcides Escobar, along with outfielder Lorenzo Cain and minor league pitcher Jake Odorizzi in the deal. Yet many still wonder whether they were wrong to trade away one of their best homegrown pitchers.

Greinke certainly gave those folks some fodder in his return to Kauffman Stadium.

”Yeah, it was exciting,” Greinke acknowledged afterward. ”When I woke up, I was probably a little more excited than usual.”

After serving up Gordon’s sixth career leadoff homer, Greinke allowed only one hit over the next four innings, striking out the side in the fourth. He didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until the fifth, and then left him stranded there by recording three straight outs.

His low-90s fastball and pinpoint command was precisely what Royals fans remembered.

Mendoza gave them something entirely unexpected.

The underwhelming right-hander, who had been shuttling between the starting rotation and the bullpen most of the season, set Milwaukee down in order in the first inning.

He didn’t allow a runner until walking Weeks with two out in the second, and that was it until he hit Norichika Aoki on the foot leading off the fourth inning.

By the time Mendoza had shut down Milwaukee in order the next two innings – and had thrown just 64 pitches – there were some rumblings that Mendoza could be on his way to pitching the fifth no-hitter in franchise history, and the first since Bret Saberhagen more than 20 years ago.

Things got a bit shaky in the seventh, though.

Kansas City nearly got out of trouble with runners on the corners when Taylor Green flied out to Gordon in left, and his pinpoint throw down the line doubled up Braun trying to score. But Weeks came through with his RBI single on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the inning to tie the game.

Setting the stage for Butler’s go-ahead single in the eighth.

”They had an opportunity, and they came through. Butler got a hit,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. ”That was it.”

— Associated Press —

With a left-hander on the mound, the Kansas City Royals didn’t want to throw Andrew McCutchen a strike.

“We didn’t care if we walked him,” manager Ned Yost said.

Sound strategy, poor execution.

McCutchen homered and drove in three runs, A.J. Burnett won his fifth consecutive start and the Pittsburgh Pirates finished their first sweep of an AL team in more than a decade by beating the Royals 3-2 Sunday.

McCutchen hit an RBI double in the first inning and hit a two-run homer in the third. That gave Burnett (6-2) and three relievers enough support for the Pirates to win their fourth in a row despite having only three hits from all their other players.

“The fact that McCutchen was the one who hurt us, that’s the fact I’m very concerned about,” Kansas City catcher Brayan Pena said.

McCutchen has feasted on left-handers, improving his average to .463 against them after two hits in his first two at-bats against Bruce Chen.

Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar each had two hits for the Royals, who have lost four in a row and six of eight.

This was the 50th interleague series the Pirates had played since taking three in a row from the Cleveland Indians on June 15-17, 2001.

Since May 25, the Pirates have the best record in the majors at 12-3.

“This weekend was outstanding,” Burnett said. “We are playing good ball now and we are hitting on a couple of cylinders and it’s fun to watch.”

Burnett allowed two runs on five hits and two walks with six strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings. Pittsburgh has won his past seven starts.

Burnett had a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings until Gordon singled with one out in the sixth. He did not allow a baserunner until Eric Hosmer drew a two-out walk in the fourth or a run until Escobar’s two-out double scored Pena in the seventh.

That snapped a streak of 20 consecutive innings without an earned run at PNC Park for Burnett. He is 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA at home this season.

“He had good tempo and good rhythm today on a hot day, and he was really efficient with things,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “It was a very, very solid performance all across the board for A.J. today.”

Tony Watson came on with runners at first and third and one out in the eighth, allowing Gordon to score on a Hosmer fielder’s choice.

Juan Cruz walked the bases loaded but struck out Mitch Maier for the final out of the eighth.

With closer Joel Hanrahan unavailable because he had appeared in the past three games, Jason Grilli worked around trouble in the ninth for his fourth career save and first of the season. With two on and no outs, Grilli stuck out Gordon and Johnny Giavotella to end the game.

Pittsburgh improved to 17-10 in one-run games.

McCutchen entered the game with 15 hits in his past 27 at-bats against left-handers. Despite going hitless over the first two games of the series, he made it 17 for 29 over the course of the first three innings.

“I hadn’t been feeling that great the past few days, but after a few times out in the cage, I was able to put a show forth today,” McCutchen said.

His first-inning double to right drove in Alex Presley, who led off the inning with a single. With Neil Walker on and two outs in the third, McCutchen lifted a 1-2 pitch from Chen into the left-field bleachers for his 11th homer of the season.

“He’s leading everybody hitting left-handers,” Yost said. “We really tried, even in the first inning, we didn’t want to throw him a strike.”

Chen (5-6) allowed three runs on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts in five innings. He came into the game with five wins in his past six starts but fell to 0-4 in his career at PNC Park.

The Royals have lost 24 of their past 33 games against NL teams.

— Associated Press —

Neil Walker drove in the go-ahead run with a groundout during a wacky fourth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to beat the Kansas City Royals 5-3 on Saturday night.

The Pirates have won three straight and are 11-3 since May 25, the best record in the major leagues in that span. Pittsburgh, which hasn’t had a winning season since 1992, also moved four games over .500 at 31-27.

Clint Barmes drove in Pedro Alvarez with an infield hit as the Pirates scored five times in the fourth on three singles, only one of which made it to the outfield. Barmes eventually came around to score on Walker’s bouncer, lifting Pittsburgh to a 4-3 lead.

Jared Hughes (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to get the win, and Joel Hanrahan got three outs for his 17th save in 19 opportunities.

Yuniesky Betancourt hit a two-run homer and Eric Hosmer had two doubles for Kansas City, which has dropped three straight. Vin Mazzaro (2-1) gave up four runs (three earned) and three hits in three-plus innings.

Betancourt hit his third homer in the third inning and Mazzaro singled in Hosmer in the fourth, collecting his first major league hit and giving the Royals a 3-0 advantage.

The Royals responded in the bottom half. Alvarez sparked the rally with a leadoff walk and advanced to second when Jose Tabata was hit by a pitch. Rod Barajas singled to right and Barmes brought home the first run with his grounder off the glove of diving shortstop Alcides Escobar.

Kelvin Herrera then came on to face pinch-hitter Matt Hague, who lifted a popup to right. Hosmer, normally Kansas City’s first baseman, let the ball drop in front of him but grabbed it with his bare hand and threw a strike to catcher Brayan Pena, who juggled the ball and Tabata was ruled safe.

Hosmer was playing right field to make room for Billy Butler at first. Butler is the Royals’ usual designated hitter, but Saturday night’s game was in a National League park.

— Associated Press —

Rod Barajas went to his “dance moves.” Pedro Alvarez deftly waited out the perfect moment to take off in a sprint. Both scored on plays that should have been outs.

Talk about a lift for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who rank last in the majors in runs but just keep winning anyway.

Erik Bedard pitched seven solid innings, Neil Walker had three hits, and Pittsburgh beat the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Friday night for its 10th victory in the past 13 games.

The 250-pound Barajas scored the Pirates’ second run when he used a nifty slide to avoid the tag from Humberto Quintero following Clint Barmes’ single in the second. Alvarez made it 4-2 an inning later when he took off from third after Jose Tabata was picked off first but got into a rundown.

“These are the small things we have to do to win ballgames as a team that’s not going to go out and hit three-run homers every night,” Walker said.

Bedard (4-6) allowed two runs and five hits as Pittsburgh captured the opening game of a series for the sixth consecutive time. The Pirates (30-27) also moved three games over .500 for the first time this season and trail NL Central-leading Cincinnati by two games after taking two of three from the Reds in their previous set.

“Dance moves, I think,” is how the 36-year-old Barajas described his dive to the inside of home, roll over and lunge to extend his finger tips to the plate.

“Unbelievable,” Walker deadpanned. “Everyone knows he’s one of the fastest guys on the team, but when you slide like that, you’re not going to get thrown out too many times at home.”

Pirates players laughed in the dugout. These are heady times for a team that has endured a major North American sports-record 19 consecutive losing seasons.

Alvarez waited to take off for home until Royals first baseman Billy Butler was running toward second and about to release a throw to get Tabata.

“I think if both teams had it to do over, we’d both like to perform it better,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of the caught stealing and rundown. “But we were able to steal a run right there.”

Bedard struck out five and walked three before Jason Grilli worked a perfect eighth, and Joel Hanrahan retired the side in order in the ninth for his 16th save in 18 opportunities.

Yuniesky Betancourt drove in a run and scored for the Royals, who have lost four of six.

Playing its first interleague road game, Kansas City had three players out of position. Butler, the regular designated hitter who leads the team with 11 homers, made his third start at first. First baseman Eric Hosmer was in right field. And Jeff Francoeur moved from right to center.

Francoeur had three prior innings of experience in center, and Hosmer never had played right in the majors. All that shuffling had an effect on the game, too.

Hosmer misplayed Barajas’ leadoff single in the second, allowing him to move up a base. Butler was prominent in the botched rundown.

“It’s going to take them a game or two to get acclimated because they’re playing out of position,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Those plays hurt us early, and we couldn’t get much offense going after that.”

Garrett Jones doubled in Walker in the first, and Walker’s infield hit drove in Barmes to make it 3-0 in the second.

Betancourt hit an RBI double in the third and scored on Mike Moustakas’ base hit to get the Royals within one.

Luke Hochevar (3-7) remained winless in his past six outings, allowing four runs and nine hits in six innings.

“Even though I gave up some runs early, I was able to keep my pitch count down and keep us in the game,” Hochevar said.

— Associated Press —

The Kansas City Royals announced Thursday the club has signed first-round draft choice Kyle Zimmer, the fifth overall selection in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft.  Consistent with team policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The 20-year-old Zimmer, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-handed starter, went 5-3 with a 2.85 ERA in 13 starts, including three complete games, for the Dons in 2012.  In 88.1 innings, he allowed 76 hits, 28 earned runs and 17 walks, while striking out 104.  Zimmer led the West Coast Conference in shutouts (2), strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings (10.6).  Baseball America rated Zimmer as having the best fastball among all collegiate prospects and his curveball as the third-best in the collegiate ranks.  He was named a preseason second-team All-American by Baseball America entering 2012 and to the 2012 Midseason USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Watch List last month.  Zimmer was also a member of the 2012 WCC All-Academic team, posting a 3.72 GPA.

Born in San Francisco, Calif., he attended La Jolla (Calif.) High School in the San Diego area where he played four years of baseball, mostly as a third baseman, while also competing in water polo and basketball.  Serving mostly as a position player, he pitched a total of 21.1 innings during his high school career.  Zimmer converted to pitcher his freshman season at USF, but only made five appearances that year.  He then posted a 6-5 record with a 3.73 ERA last season, including outdueling 2011 first-overall selection Gerrit Cole and the UCLA Bruins, 3-0, in a four-hit complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts in a NCAA regional game on June 3, 2011.

Zimmer is the 23rd pitcher to be selected by the Royals in the first round and the first since 2011 All-Star Aaron Crow in 2009.

— Royals Media Relations —

Bruce Chen will never overpower with a blazing fastball. He’ll never step onto the mound and strike fear into the hearts of opposing hitters.

He’s awfully adept at getting them out anyway.

The veteran left-hander kept Minnesota off balance all night, outdueling Francisco Liriano and making a lone run scored in the second inning stand up to give the Kansas City Royals a 1-0 victory over the Twins on Tuesday night.

“He did a great job from the first inning on. He’d speed their bats up and slow them down,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He had good tempo and he was banging strikes.”

Chen (5-5) allowed four hits without a walk to win for the fifth time in six starts, which came on the heels of a miserable start to the season that made some question whether the two-year deal he was given by Kansas City was really worth it.

Well, he’s proving just how valuable he is to a patchwork rotation.

“Pitching is contagious. You say, `You know what? Let’s keep it going,” said Chen, who added to a pair of shutouts logged by Kansas City already on this six-game homestand.

“This whole pitching staff is pushing each other.”

Chen was pushing Liriano, too.

The Twins’ left-hander allowed only four hits in six innings, but three of them came in the second when the Twins’ failure to turn a double play proved costly. It allowed Brayan Pena to send an RBI single rolling through the left side of the infield for the game’s only run.

Greg Holland worked around an error in the eighth for Kansas City, and Jonathan Broxton left runners on first and second in the ninth for his 14th save of the season.

“You’re just out there trying to compete,” said Broxton, who got some help from a couple of nifty plays by his defense. “You have to bear down and let your defense work.”

Chen retired the first six batters he faced, and then helped himself after Brian Dozier singled to lead off the third by catching him trying to steal. The only other hits Chen allowed were a double by Dozier and singles by Darin Mastroianni and Jamey Carroll.

“He changed speeds well. He kept us off balance,” said the Twins’ Denard Span, who went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. “He threw a lot of different arm angles. He threw over the top, three quarters and a couple of times a sidearm with two strikes. He mixed it up.

“He’s the type of pitcher when he’s on, he can do what he did tonight.”

Liriano, who had just snapped a personal six-game skid, kept Minnesota in the game.

He struck out eight while yielding only one walk in six sharp innings, even matching a major league record when he struck out four batters in the fourth — Jeff Francoeur swung and missed at a pitch in the dirt, allowing him to reach base with the strikeout.

It was the third time this season that a pitcher has fanned four in an inning.

“My confidence has been there,” he said. “It’s all about location.”

The only blemish against Liriano — the only real blemish in the game — came in the second inning, when Francoeur singled and Eric Hosmer chopped a pitch back at Liriano.

He whirled around and threw to Dozier covering second base, but his throw to Justin Morneau at first was not in time to get Hosmer hustling down the line. The double play would have ended the inning, but instead, Hosmer promptly stole second base to get into scoring position.

That’s when Pena slipped a grounder between third base and shortstop for an RBI single.

With Chen on the mound and one of the American League’s best bullpens ready to work, that lone run proved to be enough for Kansas City.

“The bullpen has been tremendous for us,” Chen said. “Liriano did a real good job. He had great stuff. But we were able to scramble a run.”

— Associated Press —

Cole De Vries had a couple of key strikeouts during what could have been the inning that doomed him to defeat against the Kansas City Royals, allowing him to escape further damage and keep the game tied up.

He couldn’t remember what he threw to either of the batters.

“The whole thing is a blur,” he said, “to be honest with you.”

That’s because Minnesota responded to the Royals’ three runs with three of their own the next half inning, helping De Vries pick up his first major league win with a 10-7 victory Monday night.

“It feels awesome,” said De Vries, a former undrafted free agent out of the University of Minnesota. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

De Vries (1-1) got a whole lot of help.

Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham each hit two-run homers, and Trevor Plouffe also went deep. Jamey Carroll reached base four times with two RBIs, and Ben Revere also drove in two runs.

“It shows we can ad lib a little bit,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who was forced into a makeshift lineup when Joe Mauer showed up at the ballpark with a sore thumb. “We can pop a baseball, and I’ve always said if our pitcher gives us a chance, we can win some games.”

The Twins have won six of their last seven, to be exact.

The Twins led 4-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Mike Moustakas followed a pair of singles to start the inning with an RBI double. Jeff Francoeur proceeded to slap a grounder to Minnesota shortstop Brian Dozier, who let the ball go right through the wickets for a run.

Hosmer was next to bat and hit a grounder at second baseman Alexi Casilla, who stumbled all over himself for another error. The Royals wound up tying the game on the play.

De Vries ended the rally with the two key strikeouts.

“When something like that happens, someone has to pick it up,” he said. “I was happy to be able to do that, pick it up for the guys.”

Morneau broke the tie with his two-run shot off Will Smith (1-2), who was also making his third big league start. Plouffe’s homer moments later restored the three-run cushion.

The Twins survived two runs in the ninth by Kansas City, and Matt Capps got Johnny Giavotella to ground out with the tying run on deck to finish it.

Moustakas homered and had a pair of doubles with two RBIs, and Eric Hosmer also drove in two runs for the Royals, providing them with at least a few bright spots.

The error by shortstop by Alcides Escobar in the first inning certainly wasn’t one of them. Nor was the stretch of three walks issued by Royals pitchers in the sixth inning.

Smith was charged with seven runs on eight hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings, a somewhat sobering performance after he allowed two runs over six frames his last time out.

“I thought he threw the ball OK at times. His ball would start on the corner and just drift back to the middle of the plate,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “They put the good end of the bat on it and drove it into the seats.”

Enough times to make De Vries a winner for the first time.

“I was impressed he was able to hang in there,” Gardenhire said. “Any time you get an opportunity to celebrate y our first career win, it’s a special deal.”

— Associated Press —

Alex Gordon and Brayan Pena combined on a play at the plate to preserve a shutout for Vin Mazzaro and three Royals relievers.

Mazzaro went six innings to help Kansas City beat up on punchless Oakland again. The Athletics are hitting .209 on the season and have been shut out in three of their past four games. The Royals sent the A’s to their 10th loss in 11 games.

In the fifth inning, Josh Reddick hit a foul fly ball that Gordon caught near the seats. Adam Rosales tagged up at third, as Gordon let fly. The throw beat Rosales, who tried but failed to jar the ball loose from Pena.

No luck.

“It was just a reaction play,” Gordon said. “I thought it was in the stands when he hit it. It kind of crossed my mind should I catch it or let it drop. It was just one of those bang-bang plays. I caught it, bobbled it and just tried to chuck it over (Rosales’) head a little bit. I put it right there. It was definitely a good time of the game for that to happen. It gave us some momentum.”

Gordon, who moved from third base to the outfield only two years ago, won a Gold Glove last year.

“I thought that was a phenomenal play,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I thought the ball was going to be in the stands. The thing that was impressive was Alex didn’t give up on it. He caught the ball on the dead run and made a tremendous throw to the plate over the runner. That was a good hit Pena took. The runner had time to plow into him.”

Eric Hosmer homered and Mazzaro (2-0), who pitched for the A’s from 2009-10 before being traded to the Royals, allowed four singles, walked three and struck out three.

Mazzaro escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first after giving up singles to Collin Cowgill and Reddick and walking Kila Ka’aihue. Brandon Inge grounded out to end the inning.

“I thought we had our opportunities early and we didn’t score,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Mazzaro got better as the game went along. (Tommy) Milone pitched the way he’s been pitching all year. He got in some jams a couple of times. But you give up two runs, you keep your team in the game with a chance to win. You expect to score at least two runs every game.”

Relievers Kelvin Herrera, Greg Holland and Jonathan Broxton gave up one hit in one inning each to complete the Royals’ fifth shutout of the year. Broxton got his 13th save in 15 opportunities.

Hosmer homered to center field leading off the second against Milone (6-5). It was Hosmer’s first home run of the season off a left-handed pitcher.

The Royals got another run in the fifth when Johnny Giavotella’s single scored Jarrod Dyson, who started the inning with a single and stole second.

Milone gave up eight hits in seven innings and matched his career high with six strikeouts. He tossed eight scoreless innings and allowed three hits to beat the Royals 1-0 on April 9 in his A’s debut.

Oakland’s Cliff Pennington went 0 for 3 with a sacrifice bunt and is hitless in his past 29 at-bats, the longest drought of his career.

— Associated Press —

Ned Yost and everyone else in the Royals dugout was yelling at Felipe Paulino when Jemile Weeks took off for second base with two outs in the third inning Friday night.

Paulino never heard them. How could he out on the mound with the crowd roaring?

Yet he whirled around anyway and threw Weeks out with a pinpoint throw, getting out of a jam and keeping the Oakland Athletics off the scoreboard. He managed to get through six innings before turning it over to the Kansas City bullpen, which held on for the 2-0 victory.

As for the pickoff throw in the third, well, everything’s been going Paulino’s way lately.

“The biggest out was the caught stealing,” Yost said. “Paulino made a fantastic throw. We were all yelling, ‘Step off! Step off! Step off!’ But you can’t hear anything out there.”

Paulino stepped off anyway and made the key out of the game, and then came back the next inning and picked off Yoenis Cespedes when he drifted too far off first base.

The two outs in tight situations helped Paulino (3-1) hold the opposition off the scoreboard entirely through six innings for the fourth time in six starts, making him the unquestionable ace of one of the most haphazard starting rotations in baseball.

“Everything is going good for me,” Paulino said. “I got in a couple of situations in the third and fourth, but I tried to put up zeros and I did that.”

Yuniesky Betancourt came off the disabled list to provide an RBI double in the first, and Mike Moustakas added an RBI blooper to left later in the inning, helping Kansas City win for only the sixth time in 23 games at Kauffman Stadium this season.

Both of the Royals’ runs were charged to Bartolo Colon (4-6), who recovered from a sloppy start to last seven innings — an encouraging outing after going 1-3 with a 7.92 ERA in May.

Jonathan Broxton worked a perfect ninth for his 12th save.

“I was able to throw some strikes,” said Broxton, who was facing the A’s for the first time since back-to-back hit batters gave Oakland a victory on the Royals’ opening road trip. “I started elevating, and once I started elevating, they started swinging right through it.”

The A’s have been shut out six times in their last 16 games, and have been outscored 39-12 during their current losing streak. They came into the night ranked last in the majors in batting average (.210) and slugging percentage (.338), and second-to-last in on-base percentage and runs.

“It’s pretty much the same story offensively. We’re having some struggles,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “No matter what you’re doing, you’re always trying to find things to do to better yourself. We’re just having trouble doing it.”

The Royals nearly added to their first-inning cushion, but Alcides Escobar grounded out to leave two runners aboard. Kansas City also left a runner in scoring position in the second inning before failing twice to plate a run with the bases loaded in the third.

Colon was brilliant over the next four innings, allowing only a two-out single by Escobar in the sixth and a leadoff single by Humberto Quintero in the seventh.

“A veteran like him doesn’t let a couple of runs early on fluster him,” Melvin said. “He just puts that aside and goes out and pitches the game.”

The problem for Oakland was that Paulino was just as good.

The right-hander wasn’t particularly efficient, burning through 94 pitches in six innings, yet he managed to keep a struggling Oakland lineup off balance all night.

Weeks led off the game with a double that just skipped past Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, but Paulino came back to retire the next eight in order.

He also set the A’s down in order in the fifth and sixth before turning it over to the bullpen, which has been stellar most of the season. Kelvin Herrera worked a perfect seventh and Greg Holland worked around a one-out walk before handing the game to Broxton in the ninth.

“Our pitching was phenomenal tonight,” Yost said. “Felipe Paulino threw the ball very well, and the bullpen did what it’s been doing all year.”

— Associated Press —