Royals shake off two-game slide, look ahead to series opener against A's
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When he last took the field at Kauffman Stadium, Billy Butler was trying to help the Kansas City Royals claim their first title in 29 years in Game 7 of last year's World Series.
Now the longtime Royal will return as a visitor Friday night when he looks to extend his historic start for the Oakland Athletics in the teams' first meeting since their AL wild-card thriller in September.
Butler spent his first eight seasons with the Royals (7-2), who selected him in the first round of the 2004 draft. He earned his only All-Star appearance in 2012, when he hit 29 home runs and drove in 107.
Although he finished with just nine homers and 66 RBIs in 2014, the designated hitter played a key role in Kansas City's surprising playoff run. He had two hits and two RBIs in a 9-8, 12-inning win over the A's in the wild-card game.
Following its World Series loss to San Francisco, Kansas City declined Butler's club option, making him a free agent. He then signed a three-year, $30 million contract with Oakland.
Butler has become the first player to begin his A's tenure by hitting safely in 10 consecutive games. He's batting .359 after hitting a home run and driving in three to help Oakland take two of three at Houston to open this 10-game trip.
Sonny Gray (1-0, 0.59 ERA) will try to help the A's (5-5) avoid their fourth straight loss to the Royals, including last year's playoff matchup. After allowing one hit over eight innings in a season-opening 8-0 home win over Texas, he gave up one earned run over 7 1/3 innings in Saturday's 5-4, 11-inning home loss to Seattle.
The right-hander has a 1.93 ERA in a pair of losses last season against Kansas City.
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He won't have to worry about facing Alex Rios, who has hit .321 in his first seven games with the Royals but is expected to miss at least one month with a broken left hand after being hit by a pitch Monday. Eric Hosmer has gone 17 for 38 (.447) over his last 11 games against the A's, including a three-hit playoff effort.
Since averaging 7.4 runs with 10 home runs during a 7-0 start, Kansas City has scored six and homered once in its last two. Alcides Escobar had his 17-game hitting streak snapped in Thursday's 8-5 loss at Minnesota.
Lorenzo Cain, who went 3 for 4 with a home run Thursday, is 15 for 35 (.429) with 11 RBIs while hitting safely in each of his nine games. Moustakas has gone 10 for 24 during his six-game hitting streak.
Jeremy Guthrie allowed four runs over seven innings in Saturday's 6-4 win at the Los Angeles Angels in his season debut. He gave up six runs over 4 2/3 innings in his lone home start against the A's last season after pitching six scoreless innings in Oakland.
Sam Fuld went 3 for 5 with a double off Guthrie last season and he's hitting .361 so far in 2015. Ben Zobrist is expected to return after missing Wednesday's 6-1 loss to the Astros because of a sore heel.
"At this point in time in the season we don't want it to get any worse," manager Bob Melvin told MLB's official website.