Royals Beat Angels in Extras, 7-4
By Tom Barkwell
The Royals played the Angels in a five-hour, back-and-forth battle in Anaheim, CA on Saturday evening, a game eventually won by the Royals, 7-4, in 13 innings.
The Royals struck first with two runs in the third inning, in patented Royals style: infield single, single, sac fly, and another single. They expanded the lead to 3-0 with another prototypical Royals inning: bunt single (Alcides Escobar), two stolen bases (also Escobar), and another single. And that’s when the green-eyed monster reared its ugly head.
The Angels apparently didn’t like watching their guests celebrate, so they responded with the more efficient doubles (Raul Ibanez and Albert Pujols) and home runs (Erick Aybar and Mike Trout) in the fourth and fifth innings, taking a 4-3 lead in the process.
The Royals would score one to tie in the seventh inning with yet another standard Royals rally: single, single, walk to load the bases with nobody out, double-play grounder to score one, strikeout.
The teams remained tied at four until the thirteenth inning, when Danny Valencia led off with a double. Pinch runner Jarrod Dyson then got picked off – only kidding! – he actually scored when Alcides Escobar laid down a sac bunt that pitcher Mike Morin air-mailed to first. Two insurance runs were tacked on with an RBI single by Nori Aoki, and a sac fly by Billy Butler (his second sacrifice RBI of the game).
Royals starting pitcher James Shields wasn’t sharp, allowing nine hits, two walks, and four runs in six innings of work. His Angels counterpart, Matt Shoemaker, gave up three runs (two earned) on eight hits and a walk in five innings.
Eric Hosmer had four hits on the day. Lorenzo Cain had three. And Royals relievers threw seven innings of shutout baseball, culminating in a 1-2-3 by Royals closer extraordinaire Greg Holland as he earned his AL leading 14th save.