Royals beat Angels, 5-1

They haven’t won any of their last 10 series, including this weekend’s three-game set in Los Angeles. But the Royals found a way to get a victory in their series by beating the Angels, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon.

The kicker was a three-run third inning. With one out, Whit Merrifield walked and Nicky Lopez singled. Adalberto Mondesi followed that up with a single to load the bases, but two errors were committed by Los Angeles on the same play, allowing a run to score and everyone to move up an extra base. Hunter Dozier made the error hurt by hammering a two-out, two-run double into the right-center gap, making it 3-0.

The Angels got a run back in the fourth, but Chris Owings, of all people, plated a run on an RBI single in the sixth. The single was enough for Rex Hudler to go on a rant about how Owings, now 7 for his last 74, deserves to be given plenty of patience. “You can’t bury a guy with seven years of big-league experience on the bench!” In fairness, he’s right. Owings shouldn’t be buried on the bench. He should be off the roster. Or, if you’re going for the buried theme, bury him in a trash can and leave him there or something.

Kansas City added their fifth run in the ninth inning when Alex Gordon got hit by a pitch with two outs. He has 34 RBI this year in 44 games. In 2017, he had 45 RBI in 148 games.

Danny Duffy did a good job in his hometown of Los Angeles. He worked through six innings, allowing just one run and striking out five. He wasn’t terribly efficient, as he needed 106 pitches to get 18 outs, but it was better than his last time out. He is 3-1 on the year and boasts a 3.45 ERA through five starts, which is leaps and bounds better from where he was in 2018.

Jake Diekman also did a really good job in the eighth inning, as he was summoned on after a leadoff single was surrendered. He blew through his three hitters, striking out all three of them. He’s now struck out 16 batters in eight innings pitched this May.

They finally beat Tyler Skaggs! I feel like I’ve watched Tyler Skaggs pitch eight games against the Royals, and it seems like they’ve never scored a run against that guy. Today, they got him three times and handed him a sweet L. I’ve waited awhile for that one.

The Royals are 16-31. They’re right where they were last year. They’ve played a harder schedule, but you can factor in all of the excuses that you want. This team should have a better record, and they need to start winning some series.

Up next: the Royals head to St. Louis for a week series with the Cardinals. They get tomorrow off before beginning that set on Tuesday night. The pitching matchup is Homer Bailey and Michael Wacha.