Royals 8, Angels 6: Omar Infante hit his first career grand slam to cap a seven-run third inning as host Kansas City ended a five-game losing streak to Los Angeles.
Lorenzo Cain scored twice, drove in a run and joined Salvador Perez with three hits for the Royals, who won for only the second time in their last eight contests. Michael Mariot (1-0) got Kansas City out a bases-loaded jam in the fourth to notch his first major-league victory and Greg Holland struck out the side during a flawless ninth to post his 23rd save.
Mike Trout hit a mammoth solo home run in the first that Kansas City officials listed as 445 feet - well short of the 489-foot shot calculated by ESPN - and rookie C.J. Cron posted the first multi-homer game of his career for the Angels, who saw their six-game winning streak snapped. Matt Shoemaker (5-2) lost for the first time in nine major-league starts, surrendering career highs in runs (eight) and hits (11) over four frames to end his personal five-game winning streak.
Los Angeles jumped out to an early advantage as Trout hammered a 3-1 fastball from Kansas City starter Jason Vargas into the fountains in center and Cron made it 2-0 in the second with a deep shot of his own to left-center. Kansas City stormed back with a season high-tying seven runs in the third, getting back-to-back run-scoring singles from Jarrod Dyson and Cain, a sacrifice fly from Alex Gordon and Infante’s first home run at home this season.
Billy Butler added an RBI single in the fourth before the Angels closed the book on Vargas with no outs in the bottom half following Cron’s second homer – a two-run shot – and a run-scoring single by Chris Iannetta. Mariot yielded a sacrifice fly to Albert Pujols after he replaced Vargas, but retired Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick to get out of the jam.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Since the Royals have the final say on the distance of Trout’s blast, it came up shy of the longest homer ever hit at Kauffman Stadium - a 480-foot shot by Johnny Bench in the 1973 All-Star Game. …The Angels traded RHP Ernesto Frieri to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday in exchange for RHP Jason Grilli. … Shoemaker had not given up more than three earned runs in any of his first 13 major-league outings, including eight starts.
LA Angels | Kansas City | |
Matt Shoemaker | Player | Jason Vargas |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
4.0 | IP | 4.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 1 |
11 | Hits | 9 |
18.00 | ERA | 13.50 |
LA Angels | Kansas City | |
C.J. Cron | Player | Salvador Perez |
2 | Hits | 3 |
3 | RBI | 0 |
2 | HR | 0 |
8 | TB | 3 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
LA Angels | 9 | 3 | 19 | .257 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Kansas City | 13 | 1 | 20 | .361 | 13 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 |