OAKLAND -- Frankie Montas pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning to win his third straight start since being called up from the minors and Khris Davis homered twice to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 7-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
Dustin Fowler also homered and Jonathan Lucroy drove in three runs to help the A's send the Royals to their sixth straight loss and drop them to a season-worst 22 games under .500.
Montas (3-0) was the beneficiary of the big night from Oakland's bats even if he didn't need much help. He followed up his eight scoreless innings in a win at Kansas City last Friday night with another sharp outing. He allowed six hits and held Kansas City scoreless until Mike Moustakas hit a two-run homer with two outs in the eighth.
Montas, who was 1-5 in nine starts at Triple-A Nashville before getting called up last month, is 3-0 with a 1.25 ERA in the big leagues this season.
Lou Trivino got four outs for his first save.
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Davis gave Montas the early lead with his solo homer with two outs in the first against Jakob Junis (5-6) and added another to lead off the fourth for his 17th career multihomer game and second this year.
Fowler added a solo shot in the third and Lucroy had an RBI single in the fourth and two-run double in the sixth.
Junis allowed six runs and 10 hits in 5 1-3 innings to lose his third straight start.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Royals: RF Jorge Soler left the game in the second inning after fouling a ball off his left foot. He finished his at-bat and struck out before being replaced in the field by Abraham Almonte. Soler is day to day with a bruised left big toe.
Athletics: RHP Santiago Casilla was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list and RHP Ryan Dull was optioned to Triple-A Nashville. Casilla had a 3.32 ERA and one save in 16 relief appearances before going on the DL on May 26 with a strained right shoulder.
CELEBRATION
A's manager Bob Melvin proved to be prophetic. He said before the game that he expected to hear a big cheer from the crowd around 8:30 p.m., signifying that the Golden State Warriors won the NBA title. At almost exactly that time, the crowd cheered as the basketball game ended. The Warriors actually drew a bigger crowd at their arena next door to watch the basketball game on TV, with more than 19,000 fans turning out for that, compared to 10,132 for the A's.
UP NEXT
Danny Duffy (2-6) takes the mound for the Royals against Trevor Cahill (1-2).
