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The Oakland Athletics have designated Jim Johnson for assignment. Shawn Kelley Jersey . The 31-year-old has struggled in his first season in Oakland, posting a 4-2 record with two saves and a 6.92 earned-run average in 38 appearances. Johnson was signed by the As this past off-season to a one-year, $10 million contract after he led the American League in saves each of the past two seasons. He notched 50 saves in 2013 and 51 in 2012 while with the Baltimore Orioles. In nine seasons with the As and Orioles (398 appearances), Johnson has posted a 22-28 record with a 3.45 earned-run average and 124 saves. He was selected to the 2012 MLB All-Star Game and finished seventh in Cy Young Award voting that same season. As coach Bob Melvin commented on Johnsons time in Oakland. "It started out bad for him and he just couldnt get into a spot where he could find himself and not have to think about some of the failures or whatever that were going on. "I feel awful about it, too, because its my job to get him in a position to succeed and it just didnt happen here." Current Athletics closer Sean Doolittle thought Johnson would be able to snap out of the slump. "I kept feeling like it was only a matter of time before he was going to right the ship. You wouldnt have known that he was struggling based on the way he was going about his business every day." "Everybody in this clubhouse knows how good he can be," Doolittle said. "He saved 101 games in two seasons in the toughest division in baseball. I hope for his sake a change of scenery does him good and he can latch on somewhere else and land on his feet." Elvis Andrus Jersey . Yoenis Cespedes proved he can play through a hurting right heel, giving Scott Kazmir and the As a spark with a pair of RBIs that helped spoil the Minnesota Twins home opener with an 8-3 victory on Monday. Colby Lewis Jersey . As a follow-up, TSN.ca offers you the opportunity to chime in on all the big issues with our insiders. Read up on all the questions and answers, and put in your own two cents on our popular Your Call feature. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/1102h-frank-howard-jersey-rangers.html .com) - Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard notched a win, while second-seeded two-time champion Ana Ivanovic, third- seeded Australian Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova and fifth seed Sabine Lisicki all exited the draw at the Generali Ladies Linz tennis event.KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Jacob Petricka had been joking with White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper that they were just waiting for the right moment for the reliever to make his big league debut. How about runners on first and second and one out in a tied game in Kansas City? In extra innings, no less. Petricka induced a double-play grounder to end the Royals threat, and then watched Conor Gillaspie hit a leadoff homer in the 12th inning that powered Chicago to a 4-3 victory and its first three-game sweep in Kansas City in more than four years. "We were just waiting for the right time," Petricka said with a smile. "Guess tonight was it." Addison Reed preserved Chicagos season-best sixth straight win, and the first of Petrickas career, when he left the tying run on second base for his 34th save. Reed walked Billy Butler to start the 12th, and pinch runner Jarrod Dyson swiped second base with nobody out. Reed recovered to strike out pinch hitter David Lough, and Chris Getz lined out to shortstop. Reed then retired Emilio Bonifacio on a lazy fly ball to end the game. "I felt like I had enough to get through another night," said Reed, who has closed out each of Chicagos last six wins. "If Im in, its a good thing. Im going to do everything I can to prepare myself if I need to throw the ninth tomorrow." Gillaspies homer came off Luke Hochevar (3-2), and just cleared the outstretched glove of right fielder Justin Maxwell. It bounced off a sign behind the wall and back into play, and for a moment there was some question whether it should have been a ground-rule double. "I was close," Maxwell said. "I had a pretty good bead on it." Not good enough, though. Replays showed it was clearly a homer, one that doomed the Royals to their fifth straight loss and eighth in the last 10 games overall. "Theyre grown men. Theyve got to pull themselves out of it," Royals manager Ned Yost said of the slide. "Theyve got to find a way to get out of this." Emilio Bonifacio, Alcides Escobar and Jamey Carroll each drove in a run for the Royals in the fifth inning. AAlexei Ramirez, Dayan Viciedo and Josh Phegley had RBIs for the White Sox. Custom Texas Rangers Jerseys. Early on, James Shields and Carlos Quintana were engaged in quite a pitching duel. Shields worked around a pair of singles in the first, and then retired 10 straight White Sox batters before Avisail Garcia singled to lead off the fifth. Quintana set down the first nine Royals he faced, including four strikeouts in the first two innings. His run ended with a leadoff single by Alex Gordon in the fourth. The Royals finally broke through in the fifth inning in very Royals-esque fashion. The light-hitting club managed to load the bases on a walk by Billy Butler and back-to-back singles by Maxwell and Mike Moustakas. Bonifacio followed with an RBI single, and Escobar and Carroll added back-to-back sacrifice flies to give the Royals a 3-0 lead. Yep, three runs on a walk, three singles and two sacrifice flies. The White Sox got two of the runs back in the sixth. The first came home on a one-out single by Ramirez, and the second on a blooper to centre by Viciedo that fell just beyond the outstretched glove of Escobar retreating from shortstop and just in front of centre fielder Dyson. Phegleys double off first base and into right field tied it in the seventh. Shields and Quintana were both done after seven innings. Shields allowed nine hits and struck out eight without a walk, while Quintana allowed four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. "You never want to get swept. We had a great effort tonight. We just have to keep grinding it out," Shields said. "Weve got a lot of character in this team. We dont have any quit in us. Weve just got to keep grinding it out." NOTES: White Sox 1B Paul Konerko was scratched just before first pitch. He complained of light-headedness. ... The White Sox recalled INF Leury Garcia from Triple-A Charlotte. OF Blake Tekotte was optioned to Charlotte the previous night. ... The Royals welcome the Nationals to Kauffman Stadium for the first time since they were the Expos for a three-game series starting Friday. The White Sox open a six-game homestand against Texas. ' ' '