KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The weather wiped out one of the worst
performances of Esteban Loaiza's career. Erasing it from his mind
won't be so easy.
Oakland's struggling right-hander lasted only into the second
inning Saturday night, giving up six walks and Reggie Sanders'
grand slam, but got off the hook when the Athletics' game against
the Kansas City Royals was called in the bottom of the third
because of rain with the Royals up 6-1.
The rainout preserved Oakland's 11-game winning streak in Kansas
City and wiped away all the stats that had been accrued. The game
will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Aug. 18.
But even with the break the weather dealt him, Loaiza remains
0-3 with an 8.35 ERA. Questions abound about his velocity and
health. His fastball never moved out of the low 80s on Saturday
night, and had the game stood, his six walks would have tied a
career high.
"Two outings ago, I was throwing 91, 90, and everything was
good," said Loaiza, lifted in the second after opening the inning
with two walks. "It's just one of those things. I don't know where
my velocity is at."
Loaiza has gone more than five innings only once in his four
previous starts, leaving his last outing -- April 23 against the Los
Angeles Angels -- after 3 2-3 innings because of a spasm in the left
side of his upper back.
He had a similar problem in spring training but insisted he felt
fine when he took the mound Saturday night. That said, he
acknowledged manager Ken Macha's concerns.
"I know the coaching staff and the manager are probably
thinking, 'What's going on?' A lot of stuff's going through his
head," Loaiza said. "He wants me to do the best. He wants me to
be out there, and I want to be out there and be the best."
Macha said he would wait until Sunday to talk to Loaiza.
"We'll have a sit-down and figure out what's going on," Macha
said. "The velocity is still a problem -- and today, six walks,
that's also a problem. Giving us one inning creates some problems
with demands on the bullpen, so we kind of dodged a huge bullet
today."
For the Royals, who haven't won a home series against Oakland
since July 1999, the rainout was yet another disappointment in an
already awful season.
"You can't assume the outcome, obviously," said starter Jeremy
Affeldt, who had five strikeouts in three innings. "But I think
the way we were playing, defensively and offensively, you've got to
think we'd have gotten a break there -- and then this happened."
Kerry Robinson, called up from Triple-A Omaha on Saturday, led
off the Royals first with a single. Mark Grudzielanek and Doug
Mientkiewicz walked to load the bases, and Sanders drove Loaiza's
0-1 pitch well up the hill beyond the left-field wall.
It would have been the sixth grand slam of his career and first
since June 4, 2005, at Houston with St. Louis.
"It's an 'eat-'em," Sanders said. "You just have to eat it.
There's nothing else you can do."
The Royals loaded the bases again on Matt Stairs' double and
walks by Mark Teahen and John Buck, and Robinson beat out a chopper
in front of the plate for a two-out RBIs single and a 5-0 lead.
"The walks, I guess they were just taking," Loaiza said. "I
felt like sometimes I put a couple of balls low down the middle of
the plate and (umpire Mike Reilly) called them for balls, and I
thought they were strikes. You never know what's going to happen,
but that's baseball."
Eric Chavez hit an RBIs double in the third for Oakland, but
Grudzielanek answered with an RBIs double in the bottom half for a
6-1 lead. The game then went into a rain delay and was called after
1 hour, 41 minutes.
Game notes
Oakland OF Milton Bradley was held out with a sore left
knee. Macha said Bradley worked out for trainers Saturday and had
pain in his knee when he moved to his left. He has not played since
Tuesday. ... Robinson was called up when the Royals put CF Shane
Costa on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left hamstring.
Costa, who had been filling in because of David DeJesus' hamstring
strain, hurt himself running out a double in Friday night's 5-3
loss to Oakland. ... Royals slugger Mike Sweeney, who strained his
back diving out of the way of a pitch in the ninth inning Friday,
was not in the lineup and is day-to-day. Stairs replaced him as the
DH.