Bobby Witt Jr. went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs and an RBI and Vinnie Pasquantino homered and drove in three runs to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the decisive game of their three-game series on Thursday night in Anaheim, Calif.
It was the third four-hit game of the season for Witt. Salvador Perez added a three-run double to reach the 100-RBI mark for the third time in his career, Michael Massey had two hits and a run and Maikel Garcia scored twice for Kansas City (80-79).
Royals starter Michael Lorenzen (7-11) allowed two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings while tying his career high with nine strikeouts. He didn’t walk a batter.
Mike Trout hit the 401st homer of his career and Jo Adell and Nolan Schanuel also went deep for Los Angeles (71-88), which lost for the 11th time in the past 13 games.
Mitch Farris (1-3) gave up four runs on five hits in five innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Kansas City jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Pasquantino’s 32nd home run, a two-run blast to right that drove in Garcia, who had walked.
Los Angeles cut the gap to 2-1 in the second on Adell’s team-leading 37th homer, a 404-foot drive that just cleared the glove of center fielder Mike Yastrzemski.
The Royals extended the lead to 3-1 in the third when Garcia singled, advanced to third on a single by Witt and scored on a fielder’s choice by Pasquantino. Pasquantino was originally ruled out at first for an inning-ending double play, but Kansas City successfully challenged that he beat shortstop Denzer Guzman’s throw to first base.
Kansas City made it 4-1 in the fifth when Massey led off with a single, stole second and scored on a double by Witt.
The Angels got a run back in the sixth on Schanuel’s 12th homer, but the Royals boosted the lead back up to three runs in the eighth on a bases-loaded infield single by pinch hitter Adam Frazier, driving in Witt, who had doubled.
Los Angeles cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth when Trout lined his 23rd homer to center, driving in Luis Rengifo, who had singled.
Kansas City broke the game open with a four-run ninth highlighted by Perez’s three-run, line-drive double off the bottom of the center field fence followed by an RBI single by Yastrzemski.
–Field Level Media
