ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Johnny Giavotella endured some good-natured ribbing from some of his Los Angeles Angels teammates as he was surrounded by reporters after the game against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.

After all, it isn't often that Giavotella shows the pop possessed by teammates such as Mike Trout and Albert Pujols.

For one night, anyway, it was Giavotella who flexed his muscles, driving a fifth-inning pitch from Royals starter Edinson Volquez over the fence in left field for a three-run homer and propelling the Angels to a 9-4 win at Angel Stadium.

It was Giavotella's first extra-base hit of the season, as the second baseman was struggling with a .136 average going into the game. Giavotella, who is in his sixth major league season, collected his ninth career homer. He hit a career-high four homers last year.

"It was a great feeling, something that we've been looking forward to for a long time," Giavotella said of the homer. "Finding the barrel and helping the team win."

Even more unlikely was that the home run came against Volquez, who was off to a fast start, going 3-0 with a 1.46 ERA in four outings before Tuesday. In fact, Volquez had allowed only four runs all season until he gave up eight runs and 12 hits in five innings against the Angels.

"It was a weird night," Royals manager Ned Yost said of Volquez's performance. "I thought he had good stuff, I thought he commanded the ball fairly well, I thought his secondary stuff was good. But you don't see 10 hits going into the fifth inning, and nine of them on the ground. I mean, that's his goal -- he wants ground balls, and they just kept finding holes. They weren't scorching the ball."

Giavotella, who had just six hits this season before Tuesday, also singled and doubled, finishing 3-for-4.

The Angels had 14 hits in all, including four from Yunel Escobar and two from C.J. Cron, who also walked twice. Eight of the nine starters in the Angels' lineup had at least one hit.

It was the biggest offensive output all season for Los Angeles, the club having scored more than five runs in a game only twice. The Angels went into the game ranked last in the American League in batting average, runs, RBIs and slugging percentage.

The beneficiary of the unexpected onslaught was Angels starter Jered Weaver (3-0). He gave up four runs on nine hits and two walks in six innings. Seven of the nine hits went for extra bases.

"It wasn't very good," Weaver said when asked to assess his performance. "But the offense did a good job battling back and forth. It was fun to watch."

Jarrod Dyson had two hits and two RBIs, Mike Moustakas homered, and Salvador Perez had two hits for Kansas City.

"We couldn't get that timely hit," Yost said. "We had opportunities, we just couldn't capitalize. That's what Weaver does, he changes speeds so well, he keeps the ball down and made good pitches when he needed to."

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on Moustakas' seventh home run of the year, the ball barely eluding the outstretched glove of Trout in center field.

The Angels were poised to match that run in the bottom of the first after Escobar and Rafael Ortega opened with consecutive singles. Volquez struck out Trout for the first out. After Pujols worked a nine-pitch walk to load the bases, Kole Calhoun swung at the first pitch he saw and popped out for the second out. Andrelton Simmons flied out to center to end the threat.

The Royals increased their lead to 2-0 in the second inning on a two-out RBI double by Dyson.

The Angels loaded the bases with one out again in the second, but this time they came through. Ortega drove in the first run with a groundout, and Trout followed with a two-run single to put the Angels up 3-2. Only a spectacular catch by left fielder Alex Gordon on a drive by Pujols prevented the Angels from scoring more in the inning.

The Royals regained the lead in the fourth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Omar Infante and Dyson to go up 4-3. However, the Angels rallied with a five-run fifth, the big blow coming on Giavotella's three-run homer, putting the home team up 8-4.

NOTES: Royals 1B Eric Hosmer, who went 1-for-4 Tuesday, equaled his career high with a 16-game hitting streak. He is hitting .333 (21-for-63) during the 16 games. He has reached base by hit or walk in every game this season, the streak at 28 games extending back to Sept. 27. ... Angels DH Albert Pujols began the night with four hits in eight at-bats, including three homers. The recent surge follows an 0-for-26 slump, the longest hitless stretch of his career. He went 1-for-4 Tuesday. ... With seven outfield assists through Monday, the Royals were tied for second in the majors. Houston had eight. ... The Angels' 63 runs scored in their first 20 games of the season was their lowest total since the American League implemented the designated hitter rule in 1973.