Juan Rivera, Mike Napoli and Maicer Izturis homered and Ervin Santana pitched seven strong innings for the Los Angeles Angels en route to a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday.
Howie Kendrick drove in a pair and Erick Aybar added an RBI for the Angels, who have won three straight and moved to 2-0 without slugger Kendry Morales.
Rivera kicked off the scoring with his seventh homer of the season – a solo shot – off Luke Hochevar in the second. Kendrick added an RBI double later in the frame to push it to 2-0.
Hochevar (5-3) surrendered Izturis’ solo blast in the third and yielded single runs in the fifth and sixth to cap Los Angeles’ attack.
Santana (5-3) had no trouble making the lead stand up, allowing one run on seven hits while striking out six to post his fourth win in as many starts.
The Angels started journeyman outfielder Michael Ryan at first base and moved Robb Quinlan to the corner for defensive purposes later in the game. Manager Mike Scioscia will be forced to mix-and-match at first for the foreseeable future since regular Morales broke his leg celebrating a walk-off grand slam on Saturday.
LA Angels | Kansas City | |
Ervin Santana | Player | Luke Hochevar |
Win | W/L | Loss |
7.0 | IP | 7.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 7 |
7 | Hits | 9 |
1.29 | ERA | 6.43 |
LA Angels | Kansas City | |
Mike Napoli | Player | Alberto Jose Callaspo |
3 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 0 |
1 | HR | 0 |
7 | TB | 5 |
1.000 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
LA Angels | 11 | 3 | 24 | .289 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Kansas City | 8 | 0 | 12 | .235 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |