I guess since Tony LaRussa's White Sox earned moniker of "winning ugly," there had to be an ugly remnant around there somewhere, and despite the departure of LaRussa--years ago--ugly reared its ugly head last night when the awful (13-37, 21 games back) Kansas City Royals stumbled into town Monday, and beat Oakland, somehow, 4-3.

I asked a few of the guys in the booth how the A's could possibly let this happen, and, please KC players and fans, I really mean no disrespect. The Royals were my frist Strat-o team in the late 70's, and in those days we played each other a full set of games, live, with dice. I grew more than fond of Fred Patek, Amos Otis, Dennis Leonard, and especially George Brett, who went on to become one of my all time favorite players.

I still remember so vividly, camping with my then wife Ava at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, doing laundry after ten days worth of camping at Yosemite, Bryce, and Zion, pulling in Radio KOMA, the Royals flagship station. George Brett got five hits that night and was hitting over .400.

But, we all know that they have fallen beyond disarray the past few years, in fact KC is technically a lot worse than the Montreal/Washington contingent that had no fans, and again, I am only stating facts here, as opposed to slamming the Royals.

But, after Brad Halsey gave up a lead off homer to David DeJesus, and then allowed Reggie Sanders and Emil Brown, I noted to a friend online that "I was getting a bad feeling about this." Sure enough Halsey just didn't have the stuff to dominate anyone.

His opponent, however, Denny Bautista was not much better, as despite being down 6-1 going into the bottom of the fourth, the A's grabbed two at the bottom of the inning, and then four on Jay Payton's unlikely looking homer just inside the foul pole in the fifth, and suddenly things started to seem correct as Oakland led 7-6.

Now, that might seem so bad, but by the fifth both starting pitchers were out after having collectively thrown over 160 pitches. Oddly, there was only one error, but a number of players, including Frank Thomas and Emil Brown put down some of the worst swings on balls four, possibly in the history of the universe.

In the fifth Eric Chavez  came out with a bruised left hand, in the seventh, it was Mark Ellis with a thumb injury, and then Doug Mientkiewicz with a strained "abductor" (I swear that is what was announced in the booth).

Both teams left 11 base runners, but again, Oakland managed seven walks with their eleven hits, and Kansas City 16 hits plus four walks. And, though those numbers do beg for a higher score, of all those hits there were a couple of smacks, but they were more along the lines of the pop double Adam Melhuse managed. The word "double" gives the illusion that Melhuse got some wood on the ball, which is mostly true.

But, Okland did indeed own the lead in the ninth when Huston Street came in to close, but without a fastball. In fact no one who pitched, save maybe Bautista (there were ten pitchers) had any kind of stuff at all. Street gave up two quick singles, and then reared back and got a strikeout, and a weak pop to right so that by the time Matt Stairs lined a single to score the tying run, I knew it was coming.

For the record, Elmer Dessens was the winning pitcher. (He has three of KC's 13 wins? How did that happen?) Matt Roney was the loser, in three hours and thirty-six minutes and ten innings. He lost to the offensive juggernaut of Mark Grudzielanek and Angel Berroa.

Not that the Athletics did not have a chance in their half of the tenth. Dan Johnson got a single, raising his average to .193, and Bobby Kielty ran for him when he got to second. Which put Jason Kendall pinch hitting for Antonio Perez, meaning Melhuse was probably going to play third. If Oakland could score a run.

He flew out on the first pitch thrown to him by often wildman, Ambrioux Burgos (16 walks over 24 innings). So did Nick Swisher, and Marco Scutaro. And, that was the ball game.

As always, baseball is always an interesting game, so saying it was the worst game I have ever witnessed--as in poorly played considering the level, save Swisher's diving catch in the first and Bobby Crosby's four hits--played at the major league level.

So, I am not sure what to think of the Athletics, who have now dropped two in a row to a team that does not have a dominant player on its roster. How does that happen? It is a funny game.