Kansas City Royals vs Los Angeles Angels Match Player Stats On Jun 15, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Jun 16, 2017

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon hit solo home runs as part of a 15-hit attack and the Kansas City Royals extended their winning streak to a season-high five games with a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night.

The Royals continued their offensive surge with 31 hits in a two-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants earlier this week. The Royals have hit 14 home runs during the five-game winning streak and scored 42 runs, a far cry from April when the 2015 World Series champions averaged 2.7 runs per game while starting the season 7-16.

Gordon had three hits and Cain, Salvador Perez, Whit Merrifield, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar two each for the Royals.

Kansas City also received another stout effort from a pitcher making his first major league start. Left-hander Matt Strahm (2-3), whose previous 42 appearances were in relief, allowed three hits and one unearned run in five innings.

The Royals' home runs came at the expense of Angels starter Ricky Nolasco (2-8), who has given up 21 homers this season, the most in major league baseball. The flip side for Nolasco has been a total lack of support from his offense -- the Angels have scored just 24 runs while he was still in the game during his 14 starts.

Leading 4-2 after six innings, the Royals used four straight hits to score three runs and blow the game open in the seventh, including a double off the left-center wall by Eric Hosmer and a pop-fly single by Perez that fell between three Angels.

Strahm followed the path earlier set by rookie Jakob Junis, who made his first start and won in San Francisco, and rookie Erik Skoglund, who won his first start two weeks ago with 6 1/3 shutout innings.

Royals manager Ned Yost had to dig into his bullpen because of injuries to starters Danny Duffy and Nate Karns.

The Royals, who had 31 hits in a two-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants this week, continued their assault against Nolasco, hitting two solo home runs and four doubles in the first five innings to take 4-1 lead.

The Angels scored an unearned run in the first inning. Kole Calhoun singled, advanced to second when Gordon bobbled the pickup and came home on Albert Pujols' single to left.

Escobar singled with one out in the second and scored on Gordon's line drive double off the tip of Calhoun's glove in right field. Merrifield followed with a ground-rule double to left to score Gordon and give Kansas City a 2-1 lead.

Cain led off the third inning with a home run to center, his eighth of the season, and Gordon started the top of the fourth with another blast to center, his third homer of the year, to make it 4-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, Danny Espinosa pulled a Strahm pitch down the left field line that was called a home run on the field but then reversed and ruled a foul under umpire replay review.

NOTES: The Angels recalled RHP Daniel Wright from Triple-A Salt Lake City. ... The Angels agreed to a contract with their first-round pick in this week's draft, Jordan Adell from Ballard High School in Louisville. ... Angels RHP Matt Shoemaker, who left his start against the Yankees on Wednesday in the fourth inning after feeling tightness in his right forearm, is not expected to miss a start. The team will wait for his symptoms to subside before running tests. ... Angels RHP Cam Bedrosian made his last rehab appearance and could be activated this weekend. ... Royals LHP Danny Duffy remains on the disabled list with a strained oblique suffered in late May. Manager Ned Yost said the team is not going to rush Duffy back despite his injury having thrown the rotation out of whack. ... The Royals were set to recall Miguel Almonte from the minors for an emergency start, but he suffered shoulder soreness in his last outing.