ROYALS 3 ATHLETICS 8 F... Swingin A's go Crooked Eight in the 5th to get ex-BO SOX Ace LESTER his 1st "W" as a Member of the ATHLETICS...CARMINES Castoff GOMES gets in on the Act as well for Oakland! "WEEKEND BENDERS" flying high with OAKLAND Hardball #KCvsOAK

Jon Lester had probably more goosebumps than he had when he made his 1st ever start in the Show back in the early 2k's. The Royals had to be thinking the Game Plan vs Lester as be aggressive as he is going to give us something to hit early.

The Plan was put into action and worked kinda sorta through 4 1/2 as the Royals scored the 1st run on a Sac-Fly by Star Back Stop Salvador Perez to make it 1-0 in the 3rd. The A't then took Royals Starter Jason Vargas on a Spin over and around the Black Hole to the tune of a crooked 8 in the 5th inning for a Athletics 8-1 lead. New A's OF Jonny Gomes the Throw-In in the Lester/Cespedes Trade got in on the act going 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs and a run scored.

Vargas ' Tab read like this after the 5th...4.1 IP 7 H 7 R 7 ER 0 BB 5 SO as the A's sent him to the showers early. Lester gets his 1st "W" as an Athletics Member going 6 2/3 innings allowing three runs  as he walked one and struck out three.

More importantly the A's move to an MLB Leading 67-42 and stay ahead of the Halos by 1.5 games as they have yet to start their Saturday Game with the Rays. The Royal fall to 56-53 and move to 4.5 games back with the Tigers yet to play.