Royals Fall to Trumbo, Angels 4 - 3

Early on in this game, it seemed as though we fans were going to get treated to a The Godfather, Part III follow-up to last night's equivalent to The Godfather, Part II. It didn't end up being that bad, but today's game certainly wasn't a good one.

Will Smith and the Royals yielded four runs in the first two innings without batting an eyelash. Smith ended up limiting the damage his original organization did to the Royals to just those four runs. Despite the fact that the Royals would score single runs in the bottom of the second, third, and fourth innings, they were never able to seize the lead from the visiting Orange County Haves, managing a scant three base-runners over the final five frames.

The Angels' bullpen, for their part, shut down the Royals' offensive attack, finishing out the final 3 1/3 innings with startling efficiency. Being called upon to close today as last night's goat Ernesto Frieri was unavailable, Kevin Jepsen needed to throw just twelve pitches to get through the inning, thanks in part to Jarrod Dyson erasing himself from the basepaths in his pinch-running opportunity after sliding into second safely only to slide past the bag while Howie Kendrick kept his glove atop Dyson's leg.

In the dong hanging department, only Tony Abreu matched the Angels' Mark Trumbo, but his occurred when there were no runners on base, whereas Trumbo had two teammates aboard.