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In the initial incarnation of the game thread for today's day game, I claimed that a mysterious gift of good luck has been responsible for the Royals' winning ways. The light of good luck continued to shine brightly today. Perhaps too brightly.
The scoring began rather normally; Erik Kratz scored on a sac fly in the 3rd inning, and Alex Gordon scored in the 4th inning off a Mike Moustakas single. The Athletics had scored on a sac fly in the 4th inning. Things were proceeding small-ball-y as the score was 2-1 Royals.
In the 6th inning, though, the bright light of luck entered into supernova stage. Josh Reddick lifted a fly ball to deep center field. Jarrod Dyson, exposed to the radiance of good luck, could not track the ball and attempted a bare handed catch when he finally located the ball. Unfortunately, his hand could not stop the ball, and Reddick tripled, which brought the score to 2-2. Alberto Callaspo then singled to bring in Reddick, for a 3-2 Athletics lead. It appeared that the light of good luck had shined to its last. Black hole stage.
Then, in a sudden flash, the bright light of good luck was reborn. The Royals plated 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th. Kratz singled, and Christian Colon doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, which knocked Jeff Samardzija out of the game. Lorenzo Cain pinch-ran for Kratz and almost got picked off, but the bright light of luck was shining down; after the play was challenged, Cain was ruled safe. Dyson singled, Norichika Aoki tripled, Alcides Escobar walked, and Billy Butler singled to plate the rest of the runs. Just like that, the score was 7-3.
The bullpen, though a bit shaky, held down the A's for the rest of the game. Greg Holland loaded the bases in the 9th, but the Dirty South received plenty of the light of good luck, and he got out of the jam.
James Shields, while technically getting the quality start, labored through the 6 innings with 111 pitches. He got 5 strikeouts and allowed 1 walk. Francisley Bueno, Aaron Crow, Jason Frasor, Wade Davis, and Holland locked it down after.
With this win, the Royals reached 66 wins, won this series against Oakland, and maintained their first place 0.5 game lead after Detroit's win today. The Royals went 5-2 against Oakland in the season series, and they've gone 11-2 in August. The Royals are drenched in light, and they fended off the darkness for another day.