Royals-Athletics Preview

The light-hitting Oakland Athletics have had a particularly tough time scoring runs in recent weeks. Lack of production, however, has certainly not been a problem against the Kansas City Royals.

Coming off yet another big game at the plate against the Royals, the Athletics look to match their longest home winning streak of the season Tuesday night.

Oakland (58-73) had scored a major league-low 45 runs in 16 days prior to opening this three-game series with an 8-5 win Monday night.

Though they're ranked 21st in runs scored with 583, the Athletics have scored 8.0 per game while winning five of six meetings with the Royals (50-81) this year. Oakland had lost six straight versus Kansas City.

In the teams' latest contest, Ryan Sweeney had a two-run triple and scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning. The center fielder has two home runs and six RBIs in his last four games against the Royals.

Despite the win, the A's went 14-15 in August and has had a losing record in each of the season's first five months. The last time that happened was in 1993, when Oakland finished 68-94.

The A's, though, have been having some success at home. A win Tuesday would give them four straight at the Coliseum for the first time since June 5-8.

Oakland, which has a 3.67 ERA during its run at home, will next send Edgar Gonzalez (0-1, 5.24 ERA) to the mound.

After 19 relief appearances, Gonzalez is making his third start. He's being moved into a six-man rotation that Oakland is using down the stretch to lighten the load on its young staff.

The right-hander made two starts in May, going 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA.

This will be Gonzalez's first start against Kansas City. He's made three relief appearances against the Royals, posting a 15.00 ERA without receiving a decision.

The Royals will counter with Kyle Davies (5-9, 5.94), who has surrendered two runs or fewer in three of his last four starts. The right-hander allowed two runs while striking out five in six innings of Kansas City's 8-4 victory over Seattle on Thursday night.

Davies is 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA in three starts against the A's.

He'll try to help Kansas City rebound after getting a poor start from Luke Hochevar and losing for the ninth time in 12 games. The Royals were without manager Trey Hillman, who will miss the rest of this series to be with his family following the death of his father-in-law.

Bench coach John Gibbons is Kansas City's interim manager until Hillman returns, which isn't expected until later this week.

"I've got a good idea how he does things and what he wants to do," Gibbons said. "So I'll just run with that."

Hillman, in his first season with the Royals, should get another chance to lead the team next season. Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore, meanwhile, had his contract extended through 2014 on Monday.

The Royals have made gradual progress since Moore succeeded Allard Baird in May 2006, winning 69 games in his first full season as GM and 75 last year.

Kansas City, however, has regressed in 2009, with injuries and poor hitting derailing the team after a strong start.