Vinnie Pasquantino and Bobby Witt Jr. power Royals past Angels
Vinnie Pasquantino homered and drove in three runs, Bobby Witt Jr. had four hits and the Kansas City Royals beat the Angels 9-4 on Thursday night.
Michael Lorenzen (7-11) gave up two earned runs and five hits with a season-high nine strikeouts and no walks in 5⅔ innings for the Royals.
Jo Adell, Nolan Schanuel and Mike Trout each homered for the Angels (71-88). Trout’s two-run shot — his 23rd of the season and 401st of his career — cut Kansas City’s lead to 5-4 in the eighth.
However, the Royals (80-79) scored four in the top of the ninth, a rally highlighted by Salvador Perez’s two-out, three-run double off Angels reliever Sam Bachman, to pull away.
Mitch Farris (1-3) gave up four earned runs and five hits in five innings, striking out five and walking two, for the Angels, who have lost 11 of 13 games.
Pasquantino’s team-leading 32nd homer, a two-run shot to right field in the first, gave him a team-high 110 RBIs on the season. Adell pulled the Angels to 2-1 in the second with his team-high 37th homer.
Pasquantino had a run-scoring fielder’s choice in the third and Witt had an RBI double in the fifth to push the lead to 5-1.
Schanuel’s solo shot in the sixth brought the Angels back within two, but Adam Frazier’s pinch-hit RBI single in the eight made it 5-2.
Key moment: Bachman was one strike away from escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, but Perez hit a drive off the base of the center-field wall for his game-breaking hit.
Key stat: The Angels struck out 13 times, bringing their major league-leading total to 1,603 — tied for fourth-most in major league history. With three games left, the Angels are 51 shy of Minnesota’s single-season record of 1,654 strikeouts, set in 2023.
Up next: Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (8-10, 4.79 ERA) will start against Astros RHP Jason Alexander (4-2, 4.83 ERA) at home on Friday.