Phoenix ? Sidney Ponson didn’t do much to help his bid for a spot in the Kansas City Royals’ rotation.

Ponson gave up seven runs in five innings in the Royals’ 7-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, hours after Luke Hochever was optioned to Triple-A Omaha, eliminating one of the contenders for the final spots in the Kansas City rotation.

Ponson looked strong in the three scoreless innings he pitched, but he said those were spoiled by allowing two in the first and five in the fourth.

“It wasn’t good at all,” he said. “I gave up seven runs today. That’s not what I wanted to do. That fourth inning I was behind everybody and everything was over the plate.”