KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Marcus Semien homered, tripled and drove in a career-high seven runs as the Oakland Athletics set season highs for runs and hits in a 19-4 thrashing of the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
Jurickson Profar, Matt Chapman and Khris Davis also went deep for the A's, who are locked in a tight race with Cleveland and Tampa Bay for the two American League wild cards. Josh Phegley drove in three runs and scored three times. Four players had three hits and every starter got at least one as Oakland finished with 22.
Seth Brown singled in the first two at-bats of his big league career, scored twice and drove in a run.
Homer Bailey (12-8) threw six innings, allowing three runs and eight hits, to get the win against his former team.
Oakland scored five runs in both the second and third, backed by Semien's big hits.
Royals starter Brad Keller (7-14) lasted just 1 1/3 innings, exiting after Semien's bases-loaded triple put Oakland up 5-0. After retiring his first four hitters, Keller let six straight reach - including three consecutive walks that forced in two runs prior to Semien's triple.
Brett Phillips curled his first home run of the season, a two-run shot, inside the right field foul pole in the bottom of the inning.
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Semien punctuated the five-run third with a two-out, three-run homer. And the A's kept right on scoring. Matt Olson ripped a two-run double in the fifth and Profar added a solo shot in the sixth to make it 15-3. Oakland scored in every inning except the first.
Royals outfielder Alex Gordon made his first career appearance on the mound, throwing 1 1/3 innings giving up three runs on five hits. Gordon walked off to a standing ovation from Royals fans.
Kansas City infielder Humberto Arteaga pitched the final 1 2/3 innings and allowed just a solo home run to Davis in the ninth.
Bubba Starling had three hits for the Royals.
