CLICK HERE if you are having a problem viewing the photos on a mobile device
OAKLAND — The A’s gave one away Monday night.
Their six-game win streak ended when the Kansas City Royals — losers of 95 games this season — scored two runs in the ninth off closer Liam Hendricks for a 6-5 win in front of 12,902 fans at the Coliseum.
The A’s, beginning their final homestand of the regular season, took a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth.
The Royals drew when No. 9 hitter Brett Phillips, who entered the game batting .163 with one home run, deposited a 2-0 pitch from Hendricks over the right-field fence.
Whit Merrifield followed with a deep drive to center field, which the usually sure-handed Ramon 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.
Royals reliever Ian Kennedy gave up a lead-off infield single to Marcus Semien in the bottom of the ninth but retired the next three hitters to end it.
The A’s seemingly locked up the game in the bottom of the eighth when Khris Davis singled home Mark Canha for a 5-4 lead.
The A’s led 4-1 after scoring two runs in each of the first two innings, and Semien was in the middle of things both times.
He led off the first with a single and eventually scored on Matt Olson’s opposite-field, two-run double into the left-field corner.
Sean Murphy doubled with one out in the second and Semien promptly homered to straight-away center. It was his career-best 31st home run and his 29th while batting in the leadoff position, eclipsing the Oakland A’s record of 28 by Rickey Henderson in his MVP season of 1990.
But Roark, who was 4-1 in seven starts since being traded to Oakland from Cincinnati, found himself in near constant trouble.
After Jorge Soler opened the fourth with a 447-foot homer — his 45th of the season — the Royals loaded the bases on a single, hit batsman and walk. Roark escaped by striking out the next three batters, all on 3-2 pitches.
He was pulled with two out in the fifth after a single by Merrifield and a double by Soler. But reliever Jake Diekman gave up a two-run single to Alex Gordon and the Royals drew even at 4-4.
Roark finished with eight strikeouts, his high game with the A’s.
