Royals Rout Angels 10-4 in First Game of Road Series
The Kansas City Royals took down the Los Angeles Angels 10-4 on Thursday night.
This victory gives Kansas City the first of four games of this current series on the road, and they truly outplayed Los Angeles in all three phases.
The Royals' bats were frozen in the first couple of innings as Hunter Renfroe became the first member of the ball club to reach first base as he was walked. But the bat temperature rose rapidly as Dairon Blanco followed the walk with a two-run 396-foot homer.
From there, Garrett Hampson and Maikel Garcia proceeded with singles of their own, but Hampson was caught stealing home. However, it wouldn't be too harmful as Vinnie Pasquantino homered to right (442 feet) two batters later to give Kansas City a 4-0 lead after three innings.
The offense continued to spark in the fifth inning, as the Royals quickly loaded the bases with one out after Blanco singled, Garcia doubled and Bobby Witt Jr. walked. Pasquantino brought a run in with a sacrifice fly and Salvador Perez kept the momentum rolling with an RBI single to go up 6-0.
Angels reliever Amir Garrett filled in for starter Reid Detmers, but walked Blanco and Hampson before Garcia doubled to bring in two more runs. In five innings, Detmers allowed six runs on seven hits and two walks while throwing five strikeouts on 90 pitches.
Garrett was taken out after 2/3 of the sixth inning and fellow reliever Jose Suarez filled in. But that didn't work too well either as Pasquantino doubled, Perez singled and Michael Massey's fielder's choice brought in another run.
The juice ran out for Royals starting pitcher Michael Wacha early in the seventh, as he allowed two runs on three walks and a single before the first out. But in innings 1-6, Wacha and the defense silenced the Angels, as he allowed no runs, two hits, two walks and threw five strikeouts on 76 pitches in that span. Daniel Lynch IV subbed in for Wacha in the seventh and allowed another run from a sacrifice fly to decrease the lead to 9-3, but was able to get out of the inning after a double play.
Kansas City was able to grab a 10th and final run in the eighth inning after Hampson's double brought Blanco, who also doubled, home.
Jo Adell tallied a fourth and final run for the Angels in the ninth inning after Cole Tucker's sacrifice fly.
Top Royals Batters:
Blanco: 3-of-3, four runs, two RBIs, two walks, home run
Pasquantino: 2-of-4, three RBIs, home run
Garcia: 3-of-5, two RBIs, two runs
