Stillwell Makes the Saving Play Against Angels

Kurt Stillwell has regained his starting job with the Kansas City Royals because of his offense, but he came up with the key defensive play Thursday night.

Stillwell saved the tying run in the eighth as the Royals held on for a 3-2 victory over the Angels behind Jim Eisenreich’s two-run single and seven walks by California pitching.

Junior Felix and Dave Winfield were on with two out in the eighth when Gary Gaetti hit a grounder into the hole at short. Stillwell dove to his right to snare the ball, got to his feet and threw in time to force Winfield at second to get the Royals out of the inning.

“In that situation, you’re just trying to knock the ball down and save the run,” Stillwell said. “I’ve always said the big play is better than the big hit.”

Stillwell lost his starting shortstop job to David Howard in May shortly after Hal McRae took over as manager from John Wathan. But he is playing again because the Royals have had trouble scoring runs.

“I’m the offensive shortstop around here,” he said. “Defensively, there have been questions by everyone around here. It was a big play. This just picks me up a little bit.”

Stillwell is hitting .259, compared to .216 for Howard.

“Stillwell made a great play,” McRae said. “The ball was by him into left field. As long as he’s playing well, he will be at shortstop. My concern is to win games. I don’t care who plays. We don’t want to finish last and we want to win as many games as we can.”

Kansas City moved two games ahead of the last-place Angels in the AL West.

Ruben Amaro had two hits to drive in two runs for the Angels.

Mark Gubicza (9-11) pitched five innings and beat the Angels in Royals Stadium for the first time since Sept. 29, 1986. He last won in Anaheim on June 2, 1989.

Angel starter Mike Fetters (2-4) issued three walks in a three-run fifth. He left after walking five and striking out four in 4 2/3 innings.