ESPN.com Oakland/Kansas City recap

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Wednesday, May 23 8:05pm ET
A's winning streak ends at seven

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

Chad Durbin
Durbin

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Chad Durbin waited a long time to even his score with the Oakland Athletics.

With a disappointing start last season in Oakland still in mind, the rapidly developing right-hander pitched the Kansas City Royals to a 4-1 victory over Oakland that snapped the A's seven-game winning streak.

"It's a different year. A different guy," said Durbin. "I did have a personal vendetta against them in my mind."

In 16 starts for the Royals last year, Durbin was 2-5 with an unsightly 8.21 ERA. In his only decision against Oakland, he gave up seven runs and seven hits in just two innings.

"He threw a lot more strikes tonight," said Oakland manager Art Howe. "He was behind the hitters an awful lot the last time we faced him. We put two hits together in the third and two hits together in the seventh and that was it against him."

Durbin (3-2) gave up one run on four hits through seven innings in winning his third straight decision while stopping Oakland's longest winning streak in nearly a year.

"They take a lot of pitches," Durbin said. "Last year I was trying to get them out on the first pitch rather than throw a good fastball and let them take it, get 0-1 on everybody. I didn't throw a whole lot of first-pitch strikes tonight the first time through. But I had a plan and I executed the plan and it worked out."

The 23-year-old right-hander started the season in Triple-A Omaha and had two losses and a 7.94 ERA in his first two starts for the Royals. In his last three starts, he has a 2.45 ERA.

"Chad's a very confident guy. He's got a lot of cockiness to him and you need that to pitch here," said Royals manager Tony Muser.

"But sometimes it can work against you when you're not quite getting the picture of some things."

Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth for his eighth save.

Mark Quinn's leadoff double sparked a three-run fifth inning against Cory Lidle (0-3). With one out, A.J. Hinch singled and Carlos Beltran followed with an RBI single.

Rey Sanchez then bunted, and Lidle's throw to first was wild for an error, allowing Hinch to score and putting Beltran at third. Jermaine Dye's infield out then made it 4-1.

Former Royals star Johnny Damon, booed every time he came to bat and cheered when he grounded into an inning-ending double play, doubled with one out in the third and scored on Jason Giambi's single.

When Damon grounded out with runners at second and third and two out in the seventh, the sparse crowd of about 13,000 cheered.

Sanchez, stretching his hitting streak to 12 games, singled leading off the fourth and eventually scored on Joe Randa's single.

The seven-game streak had helped the A's stabilize after a horrible start and brought them to exactly .500.

"I'm very pleased the way we played," said Howe. "We've got to start another one now. That's the key."

Game notes
With a walk and a single, Giambi has been on base a major league-leading 99 times. ... Mark Sweeney walked twice and both times went barreling into second on fielder's choice grounders, possibly preventing double plays. ... Oakland's seven-game winning streak was its longest since a nine-game stretch last June. ... Over his last 24 games since being moved to No. 2 in the order, Sanchez is hitting .346.