OAKLAND -- The Royals must have been feeling 10 out of 10 on Friday night.

Daniel Lynch struck out a career-high 10 batters, Salvador Perez hammered his 10th homer of the year, and together, the battery ushered the Royals to a 5-1 series-opening win at the Coliseum.

Coming off their series-capping win across the Bay in San Francisco on Thursday, the Royals won back-to-back road games for the first time this season.

“Before the game, [Perez] kind of just looked at me and said, ‘I got you tonight,’” Lynch said. “When you have a veteran like that, it’s a good feeling to know that he feels confident in the game plan, I felt confident in the game plan, and I just wanted to throw what he put down.”

Lynch bounced back after a 39-pitch second inning to retire 10 of his final 11 batters, including seven via strikeout. The lefty recorded two quick outs in the bottom of the second inning but then allowed three singles, a walk and a run-scoring wild pitch before narrowly escaping with the Royals’ one-run lead. 

Reliever Daniel Mengden was warming in the bullpen in case Lynch wasn’t able to retire Ramón Laureano.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re taking me out of this game. And there’s no way I’m going to do that to the bullpen,’” Lynch said. “That was my mindset. It really wasn’t in the moment, but I think there were undertones of it.”

Lynch returned to the mound in the bottom of the third and needed 11 pitches to strike out the side. After entering the third inning at 61 pitches, he threw 38 over the next three to finish his start at five innings with one run on four hits allowed, two walks and 10 punchouts.

“When I realized that I didn’t have a lot of pitches to work with, I actually started striking more guys out because I was just attacking, knowing I couldn’t get deep into counts,” Lynch said. "I think that’d probably be the biggest difference and something I’d probably take away. When I knew I had fewer pitches to work with, I was forced to be in the zone and attack. Good things were happening.”

Lynch also made a change mechanically and with his timing between the second and third innings, after talking with Perez and pitching coach Cal Eldred. The A’s swung 19 times at Lynch’s slider and whiffed on 12 of them. They didn’t put the pitch in play, going 0-for-6 with six strikeouts. Lynch got another seven whiffs on his fastball and four on his changeup for 23 on the night -- 40% of the swings he registered.

“[Lynch’s slider] comes out looking just like his fastball, and then it gets the bite below the zone,” manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s a really good strike-to-ball pitch. He’s got a nice feel. Changeup was really good today, too, even snapped off a couple curveballs. He’s finding that feel of when he needs to be in the zone with his slider and feeling confident when he gets into advantage counts, putting guys away.”

Lynch’s stellar start snapped a stretch of four consecutive losses in five starts, in which he posted an 8.25 ERA and allowed a .340 opponents’ average. This came after the 25-year-old began the season with a 3.30 ERA in his first six starts.

Lynch and Perez found their rhythm after the second inning, and they kept the A’s guessing.

“Just figuring out what combinations work instead of just sitting back there, when he gets behind in counts, firing fastballs,” Matheny said about Perez’s game-calling. “Using that slider where we’re talking about, having a good feel of which guys to use the changeup, what pitches were really working off of each other.

“When you have that many clean innings after that rough one, they just got into a rhythm, and a lot of that has to do with the way Salvy walks him through it.”

Lynch didn't only rely on his catcher behind the plate, as offensively Perez was on base four times, including that homer to center field off A's ace Frankie Montas in the third inning.

Perez has now recorded 10 seasons with 10-plus home runs, becoming the fourth Royals player to notch at least 10 seasons with 10-plus homers. The list also includes George Brett (15 such seasons), Amos Otis (11), and Alex Gordon (10). Perez has also homered in six of his last nine games (seven total homers) against Oakland dating back to June 10, 2018.

Since June 4, the day Perez snapped an 0-for-21 skid, he's batting .320 with 10 extra-base hits and 16 RBIs. He doubled, homered, reached on an error and walked Friday night -- his eighth free pass of the year.

“That was another homer for me,” Perez said, laughing. “... I like San Francisco and here. The weather. I feel fresh. There’s an opportunity to be behind home plate [more], it’s not that hot. I feel more fresh. I like to play here.”