Royals Pound Percival, Rally Past Angels, 8-6

It’s June, but for some of you baseball season is just getting started. Now that Shaq and Kobe have taken their basketball and gone home for the summer, you might want to check out the Angels.

Powerful lineup? Check. Competitive starting pitching? Check. All-star closer? The Angels never imagined they would need to check that one, but Troy Percival blew another save Tuesday night.

The Kansas City Royals scored three runs against Percival in the ninth inning, stunning the Angels in an 8-6 victory. Percival, asked to secure a 6-5 lead, got no outs and gave up four consecutive singles before departing to a chorus of boos.

Percival ranks second in the American League with 17 saves, but this blown save was his fifth. His earned-run average is 4.85, and he has allowed nearly two runners per inning, giving up 30 hits and 17 walks in 26 innings.

The loss dropped the Angels a season-high 5 1/2 games out of first place.

The Royals got 17 hits and the Angels five, and still the Angels nearly won. Two of their hits were home runs, one a grand slam by Tim Salmon and the other a two-run shot by Garret Anderson.

On his first pass through the order, Kansas City starter Jeff Suppan gave up no hits. On his second, he gave up two.

So, in an age when runs seem to grow on trees, Suppan must have been winning, right?

Well, no. Salmon delivered the first hit, and he did so with exquisite timing.

The Royals led, 3-0, in the third inning when Suppan temporarily lost his control. With two out, he walked Darin Erstad. Then he walked Kevin Stocker. Then he hit Mo Vaughn with a pitch, loading the bases.

Salmon almost walked too. His check swing on the first pitch cost him a strike, and then Suppan threw three more balls.

Another ball would have cost Suppan a run, so he served up a fastball right down the middle. That cost him four runs.

Salmon looked for the fastball, got the fastball and crushed the fastball, a grand slam good for a 4-3 Angel lead.

That was not the only home run for the home team. Anderson hit a two-run homer in the sixth, his 18th home run of the season and fourth in nine games.

Anderson hit a career-high 21 home runs last season. He ought to set a new career high any day now.

With the four runs from Salmon and two more from Anderson, the Angels erased a 3-0 deficit and handed a 6-3 lead to starter Brian Cooper. But when Cooper started the seventh inning by giving up consecutive singles to Johnny Damon and Jeff Reboulet, the Angels summoned Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

Hasegawa didn’t give up any runs of his own, but he did allow both inherited runners to score, Damon on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran and Reboulet on a single by Joe Randa.

Hasegawa then pitched a scoreless eighth inning and presented Percival with a 6-5 lead.

Earlier, it seemed as if the Royals had packed their Adam Kennedy voodoo doll for the trip to Anaheim. In the first inning, they hit balls near him and behind him and to the side of him, pretty much everywhere except right to him.

Actually, they hit one ball right to him. The game’s first batter, Damon, hit a pop fly right to the Angel second baseman.

The next batter, Reboulet, singled up the middle, the ball grazing Kennedy’s glove as he extended his arm. Beltran then blooped a double that barely cleared Kennedy’s glove as the second baseman leaped toward the sky.

Jermaine Dye’s sacrifice fly scored Reboulet, and Mike Sweeney’s single scored Beltran for a 2-0 Kansas City lead. Randa then blooped a single over the head of Kennedy, with the ball passing tantalizingly beyond his reach.

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