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@@@ The A鈥檚 Crisp-less offense seems either to pour on the runs all in one inning or the A鈥檚 do next to nothing. On Sunday, Oakland did not get a big blowout inning, just two solo homers from Josh Reddick, and the Royals beat <a href=http://www.buycelinebags.com/celine-doctor-frame-42>Celine Doctor Frame Bags</a> the A鈥檚 4-2 to take the series two games to one. Reddick鈥檚 leadoff shot in the sixth ended a perfect game for James Shields, who went eight innings for the victory. Reddick homered his next at-bat, too, with two outs in the eighth on the first pitch from Shields, but the A鈥檚 had only two other hits on the day. 聽The previous day, they scored eight times in the fifth inning to snap a 20-inning scoreless streak. 鈥淥ur bats aren鈥檛 really where we want them right now, the last week or so,鈥?Reddick said. 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 swinging the bats as well as we could. 鈥?We know we鈥檙e going to come out of it, we鈥檙e all tired of waiting. We鈥檙e better than what we鈥檝e seen the last week or so, we all know that.鈥? Coco Crisp, the A鈥檚 leadoff man, has missed each of the past seven games and the A鈥檚 are 3-4 in those games. The problem has led to erratic availability the past two months, but Sunday, Crisp had a good day of hitting in the cage. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not swinging great and to not have him 鈥?a guy who gets on, creates havoc, takes the pitcher鈥檚 attention off the hitter, gets big hits 鈥?it hurts,鈥?manager Bob Melvin said. 鈥淏ut he had a good day today and that鈥檚 good news. If everything goes well, maybe we鈥檙e real close to having him in a game.鈥? 鈥淚t鈥檚 never the same without Coco in our leadoff spot,鈥?Reddick said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 our sparkplug, we need him back in there as soon as possible.鈥? The Angels (66-44) beat the Rays on Sunday to move a game behind the A鈥檚 (67-43) in the AL West. The division rivals have the top two records in the majors. Shields鈥?former Tampa Bay teammate Scott Kazmir started for Oakland and he had a just-one-inning problem of his own. He gave up five hits, a walk and four runs in the fifth inning, and a stretch of four consecutive hits by Kansas City decided the game. 鈥淚 was getting behind hitters, a couple of pitches were up in the zone,鈥?Kazmir said. 鈥淥ther than that, I felt good, good tempo. That fifth inning, a couple of hits in a row and I wasn鈥檛 able to keep them at bay.鈥? Christian Colon led off the inning with a double, and Alcides Escobar drew a one-out walk before Nori Aoki鈥檚 RBI single the other way past Josh Donaldson, playing on the grass in front of third; a two-run double by Omar Infante; and an RBI single by Salvador Perez. 鈥淭hey were hitting it in the right spot, it seemed like,鈥?Kazmir said. Kazmir, one of the A鈥檚 seven All-Stars (counting Monday starter Jeff Samardzija) hadn鈥檛 allowed more than two runs in a start since June 24 vs. the Mets in New York. 鈥淗e just got a couple balls up, missed location on a couple of pitches,鈥?Melvin said. 鈥淚 mean, really not all that bad. The balls they did hit hard found holes. We hit some balls hard later in the game when we started to get momentum, and right at people. You鈥檝e got to give (Shields) credit, too, he pitched a really good game.鈥? Shields (10-6) has allowed only four runs in his past three starts and 25 innings at the Coliseum, and <a href=http://www.buycelinebags.com/celine-luggage-43>Celine Luggage</a> on Sunday, the Royals鈥?shift helped rob several potential A鈥檚 hits. 鈥淎 lot of teams have been super patient against me and this team was a free-hacking team today, which is not really their game,鈥?Shields said. 鈥淭hey have a bunch of hitters over there that were being aggressive and I was able to execute my pitches early in the count. The first couple innings I figured out they were trying to be aggressive with me; as long as I executed pitches I was going to get outs.鈥? With much of the rest of the offense dipping, Reddick 鈥?who is using 鈥淐areless Whisper鈥?as his walkup music again after a one-day break with 鈥淲ild Thing鈥?after the All-Star break 鈥?has been the one A鈥檚 hitter faring well at the plate, batting .390 with four homers in 12 games since coming off the DL. 鈥淩eal balanced, using his legs, obviously the confidence factor, not worrying about the injury, makes another great play, throwing a guy out,鈥?Melvin said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 seeing the ball well, he鈥檚 getting a couple of good at-bats per game, driving the ball well, which we always like to see out of him. Swinging it well.鈥? 鈥淚鈥檓 just not trying too hard,鈥?Reddick said. 鈥淓ven with the two home runs today, I鈥檓 not trying to hit it and that鈥檚 when I鈥檓 the best hitter I can be, when I鈥檓 not trying to hit the ball out of the park. .. Everything feels balanced, everything feels great and the effort level is down.鈥? Melvin had mentioned Saturday that Reddick might move back up the order; Reddick hit seventh on Sunday. Reddick also shined in the field, slamming up against the wall in right for a drive by Aoki in the seventh inning and easily doubling Escobar off first. It was the 30th assist of the season for an Oakland outfielder, most in the league. 鈥淲ith Aoki, I鈥檓 not playing too deep, he鈥檚 not known for hitting the ball over too many guys鈥?heads,鈥?Reddick said. 鈥淪o I just broke back as hard as I could, and I took a quick glance and saw the runner past second. I knew I鈥檇 have a great chance to get him.鈥? The A鈥檚 didn鈥檛 have baserunners in the first three innings Friday or the first four innings Saturday and Sunday. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been at our best offensively here, and now we come up against some good starting pitching that seemed to be on their game early, right away,鈥?Melvin said. 鈥淚t might be more of a product of us not being at our best offensively.鈥?