Royals haunted by men left on base, poor RISP in series-ending road loss to A's

Jaylon Thompson, The Kansas City Star on Apr 30, 2026

Published in Baseball

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Kansas City Royals were done in by another big inning against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.

A day after starting pitcher Michael Wacha allowed three runs in a single inning, a similar scenario played out for fellow KC starter Noah Cameron on Thursday afternoon. Only this time, the Athletics turned four runs into a 6-3 win and series victory.

“Rough start,” Cameron said. “Kind of left a couple pitches over the middle. Hard hit balls. You know, tough plays. And yeah, just didn’t come out, I guess, firing as well as I should be.

“(I was g)etting behind in counts a lot there early (in) the first two innings.”

Cameron missed around the strike zone. And on a day the Royals (12-19) would leave 12 men on base, the Athletics (17-14) took advantage of those misses with four hits in the second inning.

A’s stars Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz recorded consecutive doubles. Langeliers doubled into the left-field corner, driving in a run. He did his damage on Cameron’s 81-mph curveball. Then Kurtz laced an 85.7-mph slider into the center-field gap.

Two runs scored, giving the Athletics a two-run lead. The hosts added another run two batters later when KC second baseman Nick Loftin was charged with a throwing error.

Suddenly, the Royals were staring at a 5-2 deficit.

“I thought we were making good pitches, but they were obviously hitting mistakes,” Cameron said. “So that’s kind of the battle, you know? How good can a team hit mistakes? Because obviously we are going to make them (mistakes) as pitchers.

“And they give themselves that, too, you know, hitters in general. So it’s just who wins that matchup — and they got us these last three days.”

The lefty from St. Joseph, Mo., was celebrating the anniversary of his MLB debut. He managed to pitch five innings before coming out of the game. He surrendered five runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

The Royals jumped on A’s starter Jeffrey Springs early. He threw 30 pitches in the first inning as KC loaded the bases twice.

Starling Marte recorded an RBI single in the first inning. He finished 3 for 4 and his season batting average — now .303 — increased by 62 points. Marte and third baseman Maikel Garcia had multiple hits.

“I tried to stay back and use the right field,” Marte said. “Always be behind the ball, and I found the hole.”

Garcia dodged an injury scare when a 106.5-mph line drive hit his left wrist in the first inning. Royals manager Matt Quatraro and the KC training staff went out to check on Garcia, but he stayed in the game.

Garcia proved his health was fine enough with a solo home run off Springs. He crushed a 75.2-mph sweeper over the left-field wall for his third homer of the season.

“I was trying to do my job and get on base,” Garcia said. “And I think we have been fighting the whole series against them. They scored more runs than us. Just move on and focus on the next series.”

Springs surrendered both of the Royals’ runs in his three innings of work. He exited early with right-hip soreness and the A’s bullpen shut out the Royals the rest of the way.

The Royals finished 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position (RISP). They had entered Thursday’s game hitting .224 in such situations.

“We had ... some opportunities,” Quatraro said. “And like we talk about all the time, we’ve got to keep giving ourselves those opportunities and cash them in. We didn’t do that today.”

In the eighth inning, Elias Diaz hit a solo homer off A’s reliever Brady Basso. It was his first home run as a Royal.

The Athletics outscored the Royals 12-9 in this series. The difference came in clutch performances: Kansas City didn’t get enough of them.

“We’ve been playing good,” Garcia said. “Like, good hitting and we scored more runs. We’re showing that we’ve been working hard and we execute the plan. We didn’t get the good hit in the good situations.”

What’s next?

The Royals will begin a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Friday night. Left-hander Cole Ragans (1-4, 5.00 ERA) will start opposite right-hander Bryan Woo (1-2, 3.86 ERA). First pitch is set for 8:45 p.m. Central Time.