Manaea’s first start in KC a successful one

KANSAS CITY — The trade that sent Sean Manaea to the A’s last summer can seemingly be catalogued under the unique win-win variety.

The A’s got a towering left-hander with exciting upside, and already they’ve seen flashes of his immense talent, displayed Wednesday on the same stage he was once meant to occupy.

In Oakland’s 8-0 series-clinching victory, Manaea reminded the Royals of just what they sacrificed on July 28, 2015, twirling five fantastic innings on 67 pitches in his return from a back injury. The rookie yielded only three hits, two of them coming in the first inning, walked one and fanned five in the win.

“He was great,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “I’ll tell you what, it didn’t look like he had any time off, and 65 pitches is what we were looking at, so I was starting to get real nervous there. I’m glad he got the last batter out when he did, because he deserved the win. Real efficient, had all three of his pitches working well, a lot of swings and misses.”

Manaea, making his first start since Aug. 29, wiggled his way out of a first-inning jam and hit cruise control from there, retiring …

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