April 16, 2017

The Royals completed a 3-game sweep of the Angels on Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 victory at Kauffman Stadium.  Alcides Escobar hit an RBI single in the bottom of the 9th inning for the dramatic walk off victory.

Both teams received excellent starting pitching in this contest.  The Royals got 8 shutout innings from Ian Kennedy, who yielded just 2 hits in 8 innings of work.  Kelvin Herrera pitched the 9th inning for Kansas City to earn the victory.

Tyler Skaggs also pitched well for the Angels.  He pitched 7 shutout innings, giving up only 4 hits, while striking out 9 before departing.  Jose Alvarez pitched a scoreless 8th inning, but Blake Parker ran into trouble in the 9th.

Parker gave up a leadoff single to Salvador Perez, and then allowed pinch runner Raul Mondesi to steal second.  Mondesi then advanced to third on a wild pitch.  Mike Moustakas came to the plate as a pinch hitter and walked, and that was all for Parker.  Cam Bedrosian came in after that.

After Bedrosian got Paulo Orlando to foul out, Escobar followed with the game-winning hit.  Parker was charged with the earned run, and ultimately the loss.

“Just tried to make the perfect pitch,” said Parker.  It was a tough weekend for the Angels but they have to be encouraged by the effort Skaggs gave.

“The first two innings, I was feeling for it,” Skaggs said. “But you need to keep attacking hitters. Today, I attacked the hitters, and I kept them off balance.”

The Angels are now off to Houston for a four-game set against the Astros beginning on Monday night.  It will be Jesse Chavez going for the Halos in game 1, with Joe Musgrove on the hill for the Astros.