OAKLAND, Calif. -- Chris Young has struggled through his first three starts. Kansas City manager Ned Yost sees some progress.
Young failed to get through five innings for the second straight start and allowed three runs before recording an out and the Royals had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 5-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday.
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"He's got a tremendous slider and changeup when he's got it all going," Yost said. "He's just off a little bit with his command but you can see it. Today he made a great adjustment after the first two innings. Boom, he started feeling a little better."
The A's got their leadoff hitter on five times against Young, who left the game after walking Danny Valencia to start the fifth.
"After the fifth consecutive time that the leadoff hitter got on, his pitch count was getting up a little bit," Yost said. "But I did feel like he was starting to settle in a little bit."
Young (0-3) has been tagged with all three of the Royals' losses through the first 11 games and has allowed 12 runs. The other four starters have combined to give up 10 runs in eight starts.
"We all struggle at times. It sucks. It's not fun," Young said. "This team finds a way to pick each other up and at some point it will be my turn to pick other guys up the way they've picked me up while I've been struggling."
Reddick, who hit the ball hard in every at-bat, erased the Royals' early lead with a three-run shot in the bottom of the first off Young.
Ryan Madson, who was part of Kansas City's championship season last year, earned his third save in three chances.
Lorenzo Cain singled in a run in the first as the Royals scored in the opening inning for the fourth time in five games. Reymond Fuentes and Alcides Escobar drove in runs for the Royals.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Royals: Third baseman Mike Moustakas has been dealing with a hamstring issue for several days and was given Friday night off to rest it. "I needed a day off just to rest my hammy and take it a little easy," Moustakas said. "What's great about our team is guys can get days off and we're not going to skip a beat."
Moustakas has been taking it easy in hopes that prevents further injury. "I try not to sprint or do anything I'm not able to do, but I don't run very fast anyway so it's not too hard to do," he said. "If I was playing center field like LoCain then it would be an issue, but I play third. It's a step and a dive here and there, so it's not too bad."
Catcher Salvador Perez got a regular day off with a day game following a night game.
Athletics: INF Eric Sogard will have arthroscopic surgery performed on his left knee, an injury that has bothered him on and off for two years. "I'm going to have to get a bone spur removed out of my tendon," Sogard said. "There's loose bodies in there, so he's going to go in and take care of that. My patella bone as well is a little pointed at the end, so he's going to shave that down."
UP NEXT
Royals: RHP Kris Medlen (1-0, 3.60) makes the start against Oakland on Sunday. He went 5-0 with a 1.20 ERA in nine road games last year.
Athletics: RHP Chris Bassitt (0-0, 2.92) gets the call in the series finale. He's 0-0 with a 6.23 ERA in two starts against the Royals.
