KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Jharel Cotton begins the season as a relative unknown, but it won't take many more performances like Monday's in Oakland's 2-0 win over the Royals to spread the word about the A's starter.
Cotton, acquired in the Rich Hill/Josh Reddick deal with the Dodgers at the trade deadline last year, shut down the Royals with just two hits over seven innings in front of an Opening Day Kauffman Stadium crowd that wanted to be fired up but never got the chance.
In matching his career high in innings pitched, the 25-year-old right-hander changed speeds, hit the corners and kept the ball at the knees and away from the power of the Royals bats. Kansas City got runners to second base three times, but never beyond.
The game was a complete reversal of his first start against the Angels when Cotton was touched for eight hits and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 5-0 loss in Oakland last week.
Cotton has now made seven big league starts, two of them this year. The A's are 5-2 in his starts, he's pitched at least six innings five times and he's allowed one run or less five times. Those are numbers that are going to difficult to ignore going forward.
Meanwhile, Khris Davis launched his fourth homer, a two-run blast in the fourth inning, and that was all it would take to get the A's back to .500 at 4-4 once Santiago Casilla and Sean Doolittle finished up in relief. Both men struck out the side, but Doolittle gave up a walk and a single before fanning Brandon Moss with men at the corners to end the game.
While Cotton was spinning his gem the A's weren't exactly lighting up Kansas City starter Ian Kennedy. The right-hander's lone bit of slippage in his six innings of work came in the fourth inning when Ryon Healy's sinking liner to right couldn't be handled by a diving Paolo Orlando and Davis followed that up with his fourth homer.
Picking on a 3-0 fastball, the A's left fielder sent the ball soaring out to right-center, an opposite field shot that presented Cotton with a 2-0 lead.
The rookie right-hander was able to nurse that lead into the seventh inning when he walked Eric Hosmer to open the inning. One out later a wild pitch moved Hosmer into scoring position, but Cotton came back to strike out former A's slugger Brandon Moss and induce a routine pop fly from Paolo Orlando to end the inning.
Hosmer was the third Royals player to make it as far as second base, and none made it any farther against him as Kansas City batters went 0-for-6 with men in scoring position during his time on the mound.
