It was a long day at Kauffman Stadium, but the Kansas City Royals completed the sweep, overcoming a 6-0 deficit to sweep the Angels, winning it 11-9. Lane Thomas played the hero, with the walk-off three run dinger.
Zach Neto flared the first pitch of the game into left for a single. Mike Trout followed that up with a two-run homer, just over the wall in left center.
In the top of the second, after two singles to start the inning, the Angels had first and second for former Royal Adam Frazier. After bunting two balls foul, Frazier smacked a double into the gap to make it 3-0. Neto doubled in two runs in the next at bat, 5-0 Angels. Other former Royal, Jorge Soler later singed in the final run of the inning to make it 6-0.
After Reid Detmers retired the first 10 batters, Bobby Witt Jr. tripled with one out in the fourth but would be stranded there. Nick Loftin doubled with two outs in the fifth and was driven in by an Isaac Collins single.
Lane Thomas led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and scored on Witt’s first homer of the season. A 427-foot bomb to left center field. 6-3 Angels.
Seth Lugo was very effective after the second inning but surrendered a leadoff double to Soler in the top of the 7th. Jo Adell singled him in after a groundout, 7-3 Angels. Lugo’s final line was 6.1 innings, 14 hits, 7 runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts. Eli Morgan got a double play ball to end the inning.
Collins led off the bottom half of the 7th with a home run off the right field foul pole. Collins second homer of the year and his first from the left side this season.
Michael Massey walked on four pitches and Lane Thomas singled on a swinging bunt to third. 7-4 LA, 1st and 2nd nobody out with Witt, Vinnie and Salvy coming up. But then the game was put into a rain delay.
After the nearly 2-hour delay, Witt hit into a fielder’s choice, making it 1st and 3rd with one out. Vinnie’s sac fly made it 7-5. But Perez grounded out to end the inning.
Nick Mears worked a 1-2-3 8th inning. The Royals got a pair of two out walks in the 8th, but Maikel Garcia fouled out to end the inning.
Alex Lange got the 9th inning. He gave up a leadoff single and a stolen base. After getting two outs, he walked Adell after a long at bat, 1st and 3rd, two out, Bryce Teodosio up. Lange allowed Adell to steal second, and then walked Teodosio, and on the play, Carter Jensen allowed a passed ball to make it 8-5. Lange then walked another, making it another bad outing for Lange. After loaded the bases with his third walk, Lange finally struck out Adam Frazier to end the inning.
The Royals had the top of the order come up in the bottom of the 9th. Lane Thomas led off, he and Witt grounded out. Pasquantino hit a two out triple, Perez singled him in and Jac Caglianone hit a game-tying two-run homer to tie it at 8.
Lucas Erceg pitched the 10th, he walked Neto to start the inning and then got Trout to hit into a fielder’s choice. But another passed ball on Jensen allowed the Angels to take a 9-8 lead. Erceg struck out the next two hitters to end the inning.
Loftin grounded out to first to start the bottom half of the inning, allowing Jensen to get to third. Collins struck out, and after a long battle, Garcia walked. 2 out, runners on the corners, Lane Thomas up. On a 3-1 pitch, Thomas hit a walk-off three run homer to left center. His first on the year, and the Royals first sweep of the year, on an 11-9 win after 5 hours at the ballpark.
The Royals improve to 11-17 on the season and go 4-2 on the homestand. They are off tomorrow and are on the way out west to take on the Athletics and Mariners next week.
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