Paul Blackburn starts Monday as A’s look to snap skid against the Royals

The Oakland Athletics will try to snap a three-game losing streak Monday when they continue their homestand with a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. Paul Blackburn will get the start for Oakland while Kansas City will go with lefty Tucker Davidson.

The A’s suffered a three-game sweep to the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend which included a 12-1 whitewashing Sunday. Oakland is 34-90 and have lost eight of their last 10 games overall. The Royals come into the series with a 40-86 mark and have lost two-straight games and seven of their last 10. The A’s scored a series win over the Royals back in early May by taking two of three in Kansas City.

Blackburn will make his 14th start of the season in Monday’s series opener and is coming off of one of his best performances of the season where he seven scoreless innings in St. Louis against the Cardinals. Blackburn allowed just six hits and struck out eight, which was one off of his season-high. He’s allowed a total of six earned runs over his last four starts combined.

Davidson began the season with the Angels, but was acquired by the Royals in exchange for cash considerations on August 1. Davidson has made six appearances with the Royals, all in relief, where he has allowed seven hits and four earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. He will make his first start as an opener for Kansas City on Monday.

Rookie Zack Gelof finished with two of Oakland’s four hits in Sunday’s loss. His now hitting .308/.376/.617 with eight homers and a 174 wRC+ over the first 31 games of his major league career. For proper context, Gelof leads the A’s with 1.8 fWAR despite playing just 31 games. Ryan Noda, who is currently on the injured list with a fractured jaw, ranks season with 1.7 fWAR in 90 games.

Speaking of Noda, he was in the A’s clubhouse Sunday according to MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos. Noda had been on a rehab assignment with Las Vegas and could return to the active roster as soon as Monday.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Monday, August 21, 6:40 p.m. PDT

Location: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California

TV: NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2, KIQI 1010