Kansas City Royals slip to Los Angeles Angels 3-6 – MLB Update
Kansas City Royals were defeated by the Los Angeles Angels 3-6 at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California on Monday, July 23 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
The Royals, who lost their previous series to the Minnesota Twins, were looking to salvage some pride by putting up a solid show on Monday evening but that did not turn out to be the case as the offence failed to live up to expectations.
Right now, Manager Ned Yost and company are placed fourth on the American League Central Division standings, 12 games behind the leaders Detroit Tigers. Lacking concentration and discipline, it seems the Royals have given up their hopes of making it to the
playoffs this season.
Alex Gordon looked very comfortable on the plate as he singled to centre in the third inning to break the deadlock and give the Royals some early momentum. Centre-fielder Lorenzo Cain also made his presence felt with a sacrifice fly hit to centre and Brayan
Pena scored to double Royals’ advantage to 2-0.
Albert Pujols grounded out to first in the third to put the Angels on the board. Second baseman Howard Kendrick and shortstop Maicer Izturis also made the most of opportunities as the Angels came back from behind to clinch a thrilling victory. Designated
hitter Kendrys Morales drove in the winning run in the eighth.
"Kansas City has some power arms out of the `pen, and we were fortunate to get some things going -- especially with two outs," Scioscia said. "I think there's still some upside to Kendrys. I think he's getting comfortable. He's been through a stretch this
month where he's just lost his comfort zone in the box and was chasing a lot of pitches. Hopefully this can start to get him back to where he is. We need him swinging the bat."
Royals’ starter Bruce Chen pitched five plus effective innings, giving up just five hits and three runs with three strike-outs. C.J. Wilson, on the other hand, allowed three runs in six plus innings. Kevin Jepsen pitched scoreless 1.1 innings for his first
win of the season.
Tags: