OAKLAND -- Royals manager Ned Yost is seeing progress from right-hander Chris Young, even though Young is as disappointed by his latest loss as he has been at any point this season.
Young couldn't make it out of the fifth inning for the second consecutive outing in the Royals' 5-3 loss to the A's on Saturday at the Coliseum, a troubling sign for a pitcher looking to get back on track after spending most of 2015 bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen.
"It wasn't good enough so I don't take satisfaction in improvement or anything like that," said Young, who allowed four runs and eight hits in four-plus innings. "I want to go out there and give this team a chance to win. I didn't do my job today."
Young (0-3) gave up a first-pitch, three-run home run to Josh Reddick in the first inning and allowed another run in the second after Oakland loaded the bases with one out.
After that, the 36-year-old Young allowed just three more baserunners, none of whom advanced. He finished with two strikeouts and two walks.
In fact, Oakland's leadoff batter reached base five times against Young and seven times overall.
"He fought his command the first two innings then kind of got on track," Yost said after the Royals lost for only the second time in six games on this road trip. "He's not at his best right now, but he's getting really, really close. It's all just a big 6-10 guy getting your mechanics in sync. He did a nice job of just giving us a chance to win."
Yost blamed Young's struggles on the pitcher's command. Young disagreed and said it's more about fixing his mechanics.
"It's not necessarily command," Young said. "It's more of the life. The last few times, I felt my arm slot being a little bit high and I made the adjustment in the third inning today. I felt like it changed a little bit. The results got better, my slider got sharper and had more depth to it.
"We all struggle at times. It's not fun. This team finds a way to pick each other up and at some point it will be my turn to pick other guys up the way they've picked me up with winning while I've been struggling."