Bobby Witt Jr. went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored 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 rubber 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 scored and Maikel Garcia scored twice for Kansas City (80-79).
Michael Lorenzen (7-11) picked up the win, allowing two runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings while tying his career high with nine strikeouts.
Mike Trout hit the 401st homer of his career and Jo Adell and Nolan Schanuel also hit home runs for Los Angeles (71-88), which lost for the 11th time in the last 13 games.
Mitch Farris (1-3) suffered the loss, allowing 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 Gracia, who had walked.
Los Angeles cut the lead 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 had beaten Denzer Guzman’s throw to first base.
Kansas City made it 4-1 in the fifth when Massey led off with a single and stole second and scored on a double by Witt.
The Angels cut the lead to 4-2 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 bases-loaded line-drive double off the bottom of the center field fence followed by an RBI single by Yastrzemski.
–Field Level Media
