Jered Weaver shines as Los Angeles Angels defeat Kansas City Royals 4-2 – MLB Update
Jered Weaver put in a tremendous pitching effort as the Los Angeles Angels defeated Kansas City Royals 4-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Thursday, March 31.
Angels’ Weaver tossed just over six shut-out innings and struck-out six to help the team dominate the Royals. Weaver tossed 107 pitches and ended the game with just two walks.
Jered, who improved his record to 3-0 against the Royals in the last four starts, made his third Opening Day start of his career and remained successful impressing manager Ned Yost.
"Weaver is as good a pitcher I've seen at being able to disrupt hitters' timing," Yost said. "That's what pitching is all about, trying to keep the opposition off-balance, and he does it as well as anybody."
The pressure built by Weaver was so strong that the Royals bounced back as soon as the 28-year-old pitcher finished his spell in the seventh inning. Slugger Jeff Francoeur provided some hope to the Royals with a homer in the seventh inning to Hisanori Takahashi
and reducing the four-run deficit to three.
It seemed as if the Royals had started a come-back when catcher Mike Aviles trimmed the Angels’ lead to 4-2 hammering a homer off Los Angeles’ reliever Kevin Jepsen. However, the fight back quickly fizzled out. The Royals were close to acquire another score
in the ninth when Alex Gordon missed a home-run off Angels’ closer Fernando Rodney.
The game took a dramatic move when the Royals went on to load the bases on three walks, but Angel’s fifth pitcher Michael Kohn washed out all hopes striking-out Francoeur. The heat in the middle spread out of the park as Angel’s manager Mike Scioscia expressed
his luck to reporters.
"We were fortunate at the end. Too many base on balls," Scioscia said. "When we needed to make a pitch, our guys did. But you can't just keep cracking open the door."
Royals’ starting pitcher, Luke Hochevar who was struggling throughout the outing at last went for two homers. He pitched just over five innings and consumed four runs on nine hits and struck-out five sluggers.
Hochevar, after receiving his first homer by Torii Hunter then lost his variety and allowed two more hits in the same inning. He allowed another homer in the sixth inning to Jeff Mathis that provided a four runs advantage to the Angels. In the end, Los Angeles
took the victory 4-2 over the Royals.
The Angels put in a good performance as they managed to restrict the Royals’ offence. Kansas City will be looking to improve their efforts in their next match-up of the new season.
Tags: