The moment that reignited a war.

A's 2, Royals 4
SP: Scott Kazmir (7 1/3 IP, 2 R, 8 H+BB+HBP, 5 K)
LP: Eric O'Flaherty (2/3 IP, 2 R, 3 H+BB, 0 K)
Homers: Maybe they would have won
Record: 6–7
Standings: 2nd in AL West, 0.5 behind Houston, 1.5 behind Boston for wild card

• Craig Gentry and Mark Canha looked completely dominated by Danny Duffy in the first inning, whiffing on multiple fastballs, before Duffy lost his control and walked men to the corners (Ben Zobrist stole second and took third on a wild pitch / passed ball to Billy Butler) before Cody Ross stung a liner to center that happened to travel directly into Lorenzo Cain's glove. The same sequence with one out gets a run in. The same sequence with 15 degrees difference toward left field off Ross's bat gets a run in. It's baseball!

• Ross got it back in the bottom half when Mike Moustakas hit a very solid liner to left on Scott Kazmir's first pitch, just a few steps to Ross's left.

• Cain getting hit in the damn foot by Kazmir in the bottom of the first on a fastball that he probably just pulled is a great illustration of why The Beanball Wars are absurd. It seems very likely that Kazmir did not hit Cain on purpose, and that he did not aim for his ankle in doing so. But the result of all this is warnings to both benches, a lengthy delay, Ned Yost and Dave Eiland being tossed, though it was unclear for a long time who got run because it was all based on chirping from the bench. All of this for an HBP that looked a lot worse than it was because Cain tried to jump over the pitch and went to the ground when he got hit anyway.

  Even if Kazmir did do it on purpose, here's a hot take for you: booing the other team for doing what your own pitcher did just yesterday is trash and you should feel like a bad person for doing it.

  Or, also, relatedly, cheering Kelvin Herrera for throwing at Brett Lawrie twice, once so wildly that the ball went feet behind Lawrie, which is good evidence that Herrera shouldn't be throwing at anyone because he might kill someone. Also, if you miss the guy, you don't get another chance. You tried, you screwed it up, you're done. I don't know why this isn't one of the Unwritten Rules in baseball, because it should be.

  All this in a 2-1 game when the team is trying to be a contender.

  Seriously, just stop the whole thing. Stop all of it. The players, the coaches, the fans, can we please knock all of it off? I'm actively disliking baseball at the moment. I don't want to be the guy, but I am the guy who hopes the Royals finish 9–153. I am that guy. This is where I've ended up. (To be fair, I've never liked Eric Hosmer.)

• Scott Kazmir pitched good. Eric O'Flaherty pitched bad. I wish this had been Tyler Clippard.

• If Gerrit Cole were on the A's, Kendrys Morales would be getting one in his backside during the next series for pimping the hell out of his double off the wall. Instead he just looks like a doofus for pimping the hell out of a double off the wall. As it should be. How hard is this?

• Ben Zobrist's left knee is sore. It would be Very Bad for the A's if this were to become a nagging injury.

• Kazmir's subtle postgame diss of basically the entire Royals clubhouse was pretty good: "I think anyone who has a feel for the game, they would know that it’s not intentional."