A's fall again to streaking Royals 5-3

OAKLAND - Jeremy Guthrie struck out a season-high seven batters in six innings and Salvador Perez homered to help the Kansas City Royals complete a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 5-3 victory on Sunday.

Omar Infante hit a tiebreaking single in a three-run sixth inning for the Royals, who have won five of six to open a nine-game road trip.

After winning two of three in Seattle, Kansas City swept the Athletics for the first time since 2008.

Guthrie (6-5) allowed two runs and topped 1,000 career strikeouts. The Royals bullpen did the rest with Wade Davis pitching the ninth for his ninth save in as many chances.

Jesse Chavez (4-7) was hurt by an error by third baseman Max Muncy in Kansas City’s three-run sixth inning as Oakland lost its third in a row following a season-long five-game winning streak.

Billy Burns helped spark a two-run third inning for Oakland when he led off with a single to extend his hitting streak to 16 consecutive games. Burns is one game away from tying the Oakland rookie hitting streak record of 17 games shared by Mike Edwards (1978), Luis Polonia (1987) and Terrence Long (2000).

Ben Zobrist drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly and Josh Reddick made it 2-0 when his popup to shallow left fell between shortstop Alcides Escobar and left fielder Alex Gordon for his 500th career hit.

A poor defensive play by Oakland helped the Royals take the lead in the sixth. With runners on first and third and one out, Perez hit a slow grounder to third base. Muncy charged and his throw home was high. Mike Moustakas scored on the fielder’s choice and the runners advanced to second and third on Muncy’s throwing error.

“We were playing really good ball lately and this happens,” Muncy said. “It’s really frustrating that we had good momentum going as a team and we were playing really good ball.”

Alex Rios tied the game with a sacrifice fly and Infante gave the Royals their first lead with his two-out hit that knocked out Chavez.

Perez’s homer off Edward Mujica for his 500th career hit made it 5-2 in the eighth.

NOTES

Royals OF Lorenzo Cain did not start after tweaking his hamstring stealing a base Saturday. He pinch hit for Eric Hosmer in the eighth and singled. Hosmer, who was moved to DH from first base, sprained his left ring finger on that same double steal Saturday and left Sunday’s game early.

Oakland’s Burns (hip flexor) returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games.

Kendall Graveman, who is 3-2 with a 2.31 ERA in seven starts since being recalled from the minors, starts the opener tonight of the A’s three-game series against Colorado.