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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Joakim Soria blew another save and the Kansas City Royals chances to return to the postseason took another hit.Pinch hitter Yonder Alonso delivered a two-run double in the eighth inning and the Oakland Athletics rallied past Kansas City 5-4 Tuesday night.The defending World Series champion Royals dropped five games out of the wild-card race with only 18 games left.Thats a really hard situation to come in to, Alonso said. I think early on, I knew I was going to have an opportunity, a meaningful opportunity obviously, with the game on the line to come up with a big at-bat.Soria blew his seventh save chance in eight opportunities. He was summoned with two outs in the eighth and the Royals clinging to a 3-2 lead.On his second pitch, Soria gave up a double to Alonso over the head of center fielder Jarrod Dyson, scoring Brett Eibner and pinch runner Joey Wendle.Soria then yielded an RBI single to Marcus Semien.Its a difficult position when youre not used to that, said Soria, who has 203 career saves. This season has been really, really different to me. I guess in 10 years it can happen sometimes.Unfortunately for me and my team, it happened this year. They need me the most and Ive been having poor results, he said.Rookie Matthew Strahm (2-1), who gave up an infield single to Chad Pinder before Soria replaced him, took the loss.Royals manager Ned Yost said he did not to use Kelvin Herrera for a four-out save and Wade Davis was unavailable after throwing nearly 50 pitches in back-to-back saves Saturday and Sunday.I had confidence in Jack, Yost said. I thought it was a good situation for him. I didnt mind the matchup with Alonso. Jacks had two days off.Ultimately, its my plan. Im responsible for my plan. And that was my plan and it didnt work, he said.Will he continue to use Soria in those pressure situations?I dont make decisions after games like this, Yost said. I havent even thought about. Im not even going to speculate on what Im going to do, without thinking about it and sleeping on it.Jacks that guy right now that everybody is on. Jacks had some really good outings this year and hes had some poor outings. How do you determine from one day to the next if I put him out there if its going to be a good outing or a bad outing? It very easily could have been a good outing. It wasnt, he said.John Axford (6-4) pitched one inning. Ryan Madson balked home Dyson with two outs in the ninth before closing for his 30th save in 36 tries.Royals starter Danny Duffy, who has not won since Aug. 21, limited the As to three hits, but two were home runs, in 7 1/3 innings.Duffy gave up a home run to Khris Davis on his first pitch in the fifth. Davis has homered in back-to-back games and hiked his season total to 37, which is the most by an Athletics player since Frank Thomas hit 39 in 2006.Ryon Healy homered to lead off the eighth. After Duffy walked Eibner with one out, he was replaced by Strahm.Paulo Orlando hit a two-run single in the fourth to score Cheslor Cuthbert, who had doubled, and Alcides Escobar, who reached on Semiens error.Semien has committed 11 errors in the past 53 games and tops major league shortstops with 19 fielding miscues.Escobars two-out single in the sixth scored Salvador Perez and chased Jharel Cotton, who was making his second big league start since being acquired in an Aug. 1 trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers.Cotton allowed three runs, only one earned, in 5 2/3 innings, while walking one and striking out two.Im just going out there and pitching the way I know how to pitch, Cotton said. Im not trying to do anything special, just go out there and give my team a chance to win every time I get the ball.ROOKIES GALOREThe As started five rookies -- 2B Pinder, RF Eibner, 3B Healy, DH Renato Nunez and RHP Cotton -- matching a season high.FOOTBALL VISITAs manager Bob Melvin stopped by the Chiefs practice Tuesday. He is a friend of Chiefs coach Andy Reed. The managers cousin, Tom Melvin, coaches the Chiefs tight ends.TRAINERS ROOMRoyals: RHP Chien-Ming Wang (right biceps tendinitis) is eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday. I dont think it will be tomorrow, but hes definitely making progress, Yost said. ... Perez returned to the lineup after missing the game Tuesday for the birth of his second son, Johan Salvador.UP NEXTAthletics: LHP Sean Manaea will make his first start since Aug. 29 when he left after 3 1/3 innings with strained left rhomboid muscles in the shoulder blade.Royals: RHP Yordano Ventura gave up a season-high 10 hits over seven innings in a loss Friday to the White Sox. Harry Kane Jersey . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. Gary Cahill England Jersey . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. http://www.englandsoccerpro.com/Harry-Kane-England-Jersey/ . Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille scored 20 seconds apart a few minutes after Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher with a broken right leg, and the Bruins beat the Lightning 3-0 on Monday afternoon. Marcus Rashford Jersey . Meanwhile, there were huge victories for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by just six points. Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half goals to seal a fourth straight victory for Chelsea, which climbed above Arsenal and Manchester City in the standings ahead of their games on Monday and Sunday respectively. John Stones Jersey .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. Murray Stewart could well have been chasing gold for South Africa instead of Australia in Rio de Janeiro. Had things gone his way 16 years ago, the kayaker probably would have been a teammate of Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya rather than Mack Horton and the Pearls.I thought my brother and I -- I thought it was really unfair on us, Stewart told ESPN of his familys migration to Australia in 2000, as a result of instability in South Africa.It was a combination of factors. We were quite fortunate in that nothing too untoward had happened to our family. You just have to look around to your core group of friends, everyone has a story.I think it was a very well-time opportunity for my dad; he had an offer for work that came with permanent residency for the whole family and I think, at the time, my parents saw that as their one and only opportunity to get into Australia. I think my dad was just over 50 at the time, and once youre over 50, its definitely a lot harder to meet the immigration criteria.So I guess it was a little pre-emptive of what may have happened in the future rather than that something too terrible had happened to us [already] as a family.In the long run, its been by far the best move for us, Stewart continued. I think with the benefit of hindsight you realize how hard the decision was for your parents, for them to kind of leave everything behind, uproot and relocate. I think Im very indebted to them for making that tough call.Stewart, one of Australias few gold-medal hopes in the second week of the Olympics, won through to the final of the K1 1000 as the fastest qualifier with a blistering semifinal sprint that saw him defeat Denmarks world champion, Rene Poulsen.But he could have missed out on Rio altogether too.Struck down by glandular fever in the months leading up the Summer Games, Stewart was overlooked for a spot in the K4 and K2 crews after he was unable to race in key selection regattas.The K4 omission was particularly tough, given Stewart was part of the gold medal-winning crew at the London Games four years ago.Defending the title in the K4 was the one thing that kept me going after London, Stewart told ESPN.ddddddddddddThe K1 and proving what I can do in the K1 was the other thing. So having raced that event in London and not quite raced to my potential through a combination of factors, I definitely have some unfinished business in that K1.Definitely, I would have loved to be there to defend the title Stewart added. It wouldnt have been the same crew -- two of the guys would have definitely been out -- but still to defend that title would have been good. But the crew that is going to race, theyre still going to have a very good shot.So from the countrys point of view, theyre still going to be very competitive in the K4. But Im lucky Ive still got another race to focus on.And from a purely personal point of view, the K1 offers Stewart the opportunity to really repay the courage of his parents, his father in particular, for their decision to leave friends and family in South Africa.I was always aware of what he [Stewarts father, Robbie] did in canoeing in South Africa, Stewart told ESPN, noting that his fathers dreams of international competition were killed by his countrys isolation as a result of apartheid.So he represented South Africa in a few different aspects of paddling, surf lifesaving, sprint kayaking, marathon paddling; but he didnt really force me down that route.When I chose to give the water polo and swimming away and focus on ski paddling and then later on sprint kayaking, he was very supportive.Whether his K1 challenge results in a medal will come down to the three minutes and 30-odd seconds of lung-busting arm torture at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas in Copacabana.And as for any lingering unrest at being an uprooted teenager?I think Australia, were so passionate about our sport, that it definitely filters through to the Olympic athletes, Stewart told ESPN of his pride in representing Australia.We get tons of support, not just from the friends and family, but also the Australian community. So being able to do it [Olympics] again, Im no less excited the second time. ' ' '