Francis, Royals end White Sox faint playoff hopes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Billy Butler had the big hit - a three-run homer - while Melky Cabrera had four hits, including a home run and a historic double.

Butler's three-run homer in the sixth propelled Kansas City to a 7-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night for the Royals fifth straight victory.

The loss officially eliminated the White Sox from making the playoffs.

"It's a very disappointing, very inconsistent season," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I have regrets. Regrets we didn't play better. I thought we had a better shot to win the division. Detroit earned it with the way they've played."

The Royals' five-game winning streak is their longest since they won five straight from Sept. 7-11, 2009.

Butler was in a 2-for-27 skid coming into the game.

"I've had a string of a bad week or so," Butler said. "It's good to come out of it. I hit that ball good and did some damage with it. I had a couple of more opportunities. Up and down the lineup we're doing well. We're picking each other up."

Cabrera's four-hit game matched a career high and his double in the sixth was his 40th as an outfielder -- he has one as a DH. The Royals are the first team in major league history to have three outfielders with 40 or more doubles. Alex Gordon and Jeff Francoeur both have 45.

"When you look at our outfield offensively, the first time in the history of the game three outfielders have 40-plus doubles and add that to the fact that the same outfield is leading all of baseball in assists (with 50), they are a pretty special group," Royals manager Ned Yost said.

"The three outfielders have been the cornerstone of our team. They are the veteran guys. They provide all the leadership. They provide a big chunk of the offence and a big chunk of the defence."

Cabrera raised his average to .303.

"Melky has been a huge addition," Butler said. "The way he played tonight was unbelievable. That's the way he's been all year. He's been very consistent. You can pretty much look at any game and he's made a difference for us offensively."

Butler's 19th home run in the sixth inning came off Mark Buehrle (11-9), who has lost five of his last six starts. Buehrle, who gave up a career high 15 hits, left in the seventh inning after being struck in the left biceps by an Alcides Escobar line drive. Buehrle said he does not anticipate he will miss his next start.

"It's fine," he said. "I could have stayed in, but there's no reason when you're getting your fanny handed to you."

Buehrle has a career 22-12 career record against Kansas City.

"Its feast or famine, that's the way it is with him," Butler said. "Throughout his career, it's been more feast for him than us. It's good to get one from him. It took a shot off his arm to get him out of there. He's given us a lot of tough times in the past."

Cabrera homered in the first, while Butler scored on Salvador Perez's two-out single for the second run of the inning.

Left-hander Jeff Francis of North Delta, B.C., who was 1-5 in his previous seven starts, allowed two runs, eight hits and two walks in six innings. Both runs off Francis (6-16) came on sacrifice flies -- by Alex Ramirez in the third and Tyler Flowers in the sixth.

"Look at his full body of work over the course of the year and he's pitched much better than his record will indicate," Yost said. "He's had a real solid year."

Every Royal had a hit except for Gordon, who walked twice. Perez's three hits matched his career high, while Yamaico Navarro drove in two runs with a single and a sacrifice fly.

The White Sox opened the sixth with singles by Paul Konerko, Alex Rios and A.J. Pierzynski, but Francis limited them to one run on Flowers' sacrifice fly.

Notes: Royals RHP Luke Hochevar is being shut down for the remainder of the season after throwing a career-high 198 innings, 90 more than last year when he missed 2 1/2 months with an elbow injury. Hochevar finishes with an 11-11 record and a 4.68 ERA. The Royals are 5-0 when Navarro is the starting third baseman. White Sox C Ramon Castro, who went on the DL on July 10 with a broken right hand, is rehabbing with the team in Kansas City. RHP Phillip Humber, who starts Friday for the White Sox, pitched last year for the Royals, going 2-1 in eight games, but only one start. RHP Felipe Paulino, who allowed two hits and two runs in seven innings in beating Seattle 4-2 on Saturday, will start for the Royals.

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Hosmer, Francoeur homer in Royals' win over Athletics

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Danny Duffy ended his rookie season with Kansas City by winning in the same ballpark where he earned his first victory in the big leagues nearly three months ago.

There just weren't as many supporters around to enjoy this one.

Duffy, who grew up about three hours south of the Oakland Coliseum, allowed only four hits and struck out four over 6 1-3 innings and got plenty of support from his teammates in the Royals' 7-4 win over the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday.

"It's always nice to end on a high note, no matter where I'm at," said Duffy, who also beat the A's here on June 14. "This is like any other park. As long as our team comes out on top, then I'm pretty happy."

Duffy will have a long time to cherish his outing.

Kansas City is shutting the 22-year-old left-hander down for the remainder of the season. He has already logged more than 147 innings between the big leagues and minors this year and threw a season-high 119 pitches to beat the A's.

The only problems Duffy had came as a result of minor command issues. He walked three batters, and all three scored.

"I was real proud of the way he went about his business," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. "He had the two walks (in the third) then really got on the attack from that point on. It's a good one for him to finish on."

Duffy even survived getting hit by a line drive off the bat of Scott Sizemore in the sixth. He hopped off the mound, calmly retrieved the ball then made an underhand toss to first for the out.

A small crowd of about 20 family and friends sitting down the first base line stood and cheered.

"Last time I had about 150 so it was a nice little wind down," Duffy said. "It's something to build on for next year."

Eric Hosmer and Jeff Francoeur hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning for Kansas City. Salvador Perez added three hits while six players drove in runs for the Royals, who have scored 29 runs in their last three road games.

Gio Gonzalez (12-12) took the loss after allowing a career-high 10 hits and walking three for the A's.

"They were getting hits off the end of the bat and scoring runs on them," Gonzalez said. "I felt like I made quality pitches but came up short on my end."

Jemille Weeks had three hits and two RBIs for Oakland, which has dropped two straight after sweeping Seattle over the weekend.

The A's tried to make it close late.

In the ninth, Oakland loaded the bases and Royals closer Joakim Soria walked Cliff Pennington to force in a run before getting Hideki Matsui to ground out to end it. It's Soria's 26th save of the season.

Gonzalez had won his previous three starts and needed only six pitches to get through the first inning against Kansas City. It turned out to be the highlight of his night.

After Hosmer and Francoeur went back-to-back, Johnny Giavotella and Perez both hit sharp singles. Yamaico Navarro followed with a long fly ball that sailed over the head of right fielder Michael Taylor but Giavotella waited at second to tag up and only advanced to third.

Alcides Escobar's infield single drove in Giavotella, then Perez scored on Alex Gordon's groundout to make it 4-0.

Duffy almost gave it all back when he walked the first two batters in the third and gave up an RBI double to Weeks. Pennington added a single to drive in Anthony Recker and cut the gap to 4-2.

Kansas City, which batted around in the second, did it again in the fifth to chase Gonzalez, who had allowed only nine hits over two previous starts against the Royals this season. Perez and Navarro both had RBIs in the inning while Gordon drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Royals a 7-2 lead.

Francoeur finished with three hits and became the first player in the majors with at least 40 doubles and 20 stolen bases.

"That's very encouraging, to see the offence the way that it's producing now," Yost said. "We come to the park every night thinking that we're going to score some runs, and that's a good feeling."

Weeks added an RBI single in the seventh for Oakland.

NOTES: Hosmer went 2 for 5 and fell one hit shy of becoming the first rookie in Royals history to have three or more hits in four consecutive road games. ... A's CF Coco Crisp was scratched from the starting lineup about an hour before the game. No reason was given by the team why Crisp was removed but he missed the previous two games because of a sore right foot. Crisp fouled a ball off the foot during Saturday's game against Seattle. ... LHP Bruce Chen (10-6) pitches in the series finale for Kansas City on Wednesday. Chen allowed five runs over six innings in his previous start against Cleveland, snapping a career-best five-game winning streak. RHP Guillermo Moscoso (7-8) goes for the A's. Moscoso has allowed one earned run or fewer in eight of his 17 starts this season. ... Home plate umpire Bob Davidson was hit near his right wrist by a pitch from Duffy in the second inning but stayed in the game after being looked at an A's trainer. ... Oakland Raiders linebacker Quentin Groves was among the announced crowd of 12,064.

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