Field Level Media
Jun 12, 2021
Right-hander James Kaprielian threw six shutout innings while Matt Chapman, Skye Bolt and Matt Olson delivered home runs Saturday afternoon, sending the Oakland Athletics to an 11-2 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals.
In a matchup with fellow first-round draft pick Jackson Kowar, Kaprielian (3-1) dominated, limiting the Royals to a single by Jarrod Dyson and a triple by Kelvin Gutierrez in his six innings. In his sixth career start, the rookie walked four and struck out seven.
Kowar (0-2), meanwhile, managed to record just four outs, charged with four runs on five hits in his 1 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out one.
Attempting to rebound after a disastrous major-league debut on Monday against the Los Angeles Angels when he served up four runs in just two-thirds of an inning, Kowar pitched out of a bases-loaded situation in the first against the A's after allowing a sacrifice fly to Keith Moreland.
He wasn't as fortunate in the second, when Chapman and Olson belted back-to-back doubles, combining to drive in three runs, prompting the 24-year-old's removal from the game, down 4-0.
After Elvis Andrus made it 5-0 with an RBI single in the fifth, Chapman hit his sixth homer in the sixth and Bolt the first of his career in the eighth, both solo shots, before Olson poured on with a three-run shot, his 16th.
Bolt's homer came after he had begun his career 1-for-19 with seven strikeouts. He'd struck out in all three previous at-bats in the game.
Olson finished 4-for-5 with four RBIs for Oakland, while Chapman chipped in with three hits, three RBIs and three runs scored.
Tony Kemp also scored three times after two hits and a walk, and Andrus had a pair of singles for the A's, whose 14 hits were a season-high.
Gutierrez followed his triple with a two-run home run in the eighth inning for the Royals, who totaled just five hits. The homer was the third baseman's first of the season and just the second of his three-year career.
--Field Level Media