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OAKLAND — After six straight road wins, things fell apart a bit for the A’s in their return home Monday night.
Starter Tanner Roark struggled through a 110-pitch outing, center fielder Ramon Laureano made a critical error in the ninth inning and Liam Hendriks couldn’t close out what appeared to be a win.
“We’re not going to score 10 runs every game,” Roark said after the 6-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals, losers of 95 games this season. “There’s grinder games and they came out on top.”
The A’s seemingly had the game in hand when Khris Davis singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth. But the Royals scored twice in the ninth to win it.
Oakland retains a one-game lead over idle Tampa Bay for the top spot in the American League wild-card chase.
Here are the takeaways:
Rare blown save by Hendricks
While the A’s now have a league-leading 29 blown saves, Hendricks has been their best finisher, with a team-best 22 saves.
But he allowed No. 9 hitter Brett Phillips, who entered the game batting .163 with one home run, to deposit a 2-0 pitch over the right-field fence, tying he score with one out in the ninth.
“I just fell behind and gave him a hitter’s count fastball and he didn’t miss it. It cost us the game,” Hendricks said.
Manager Bob Melvin was more forgiving. “He’s been absolutely fantastic for us,” Melvin said. “Every now and then you’re going to blow a save.”
Whit Merrifield followed with a deep drive to center field, which Laureano dropped, sending Merrifield to second.
Adalberto Mondési then sliced a double down the left-field line to score Merrifield with the go-ahead run.
“It was a weird outing,” Hendriks said. “I felt like I was making some pitches when I needed to, but not enough. I don’t think I had quite the life I’m used to. At the end of the day I didn’t get the job done and the team paid for it.”
Semien chases down Rickey
Marcus Semien’s two-run homer in the second inning was his 31st, adding to his career-best total. It also was his 29th while batting leadoff, which eclipses the Oakland club record of 28 by Rickey Henderson during his 1990 MVP season.
“I thought it was cool that he was here today, sitting behind home plate. He’s still one of us,” Semien said. “It’s pretty special. He was my dad’s favorite player growing up. It’s cool to be in any conversation with him.”
Semien also has 117 runs scored, leaving him just seven shy of breaking Reggie Jackson’s 50-year-old Oakland record of 123 in a season.
“He’s been fantastic,” Melvin said. “Durable, power, average, on base, defense. One of the better players in the league.”
Rough night for Roark
Tanner Roark was 4-1 in seven starts since the A’s got him in a July 31 trade with Cincinnati. But the right-hander labored for a second straight game, although he did pull off one impressive escape.
Roark gave up a 447-foot homer to Jorge Soler — his 45th of the season, adding to his franchise record — before loading the bases with no outs in the fourth. He proceeded to strike out three straight batters — all on 3-2 pitches — to get out of the inning still holding a 4-2 lead.
“That felt good and gave me an extra surge of confident,” he said. “Just got to be more efficient with getting early content. I’ve got a good defense behind me.
“I’d get behind on counts and then come back and they’d grind good at-bats out.”
Roark, who allowed five runs in last Tuesday’s 21-7 win at Houston, was pulled with two out and runners at second and third in the fifth. Left-hander Jake Diekman came on but gave up a two-run, game-tying single to right by Alex Gordon.
“It was a seeing-eye single. Diekman did his job,” Roark said. “That’s baseball sometimes.”
Roark had eight of the 15 strikeouts recorded by A’s pitchers, his high since coming to Oakland.
