Angels beat Kansas City, 5-4, to get back to .500
Reporting from Kansas City, Mo. -- The Angels climbed their way back to what many consider mediocrity Thursday, riding seven shutout innings from Jered Weaver to a 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals that pushed their record to .500 (28-28) for the first time since April 30.
“Any time you start off slow, getting back to .500 is key,” said Weaver, who gave up four hits and struck out nine to outpitch 2009 American League Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke. “We’re in the same position we were in last year. It’s only a matter of time before we start clicking.”
There is a temptation to draw a parallel to last season, when the Angels were 29-29 and 4½ games back in the division June 11 before going on a 34-11 tear that pushed them to 63-40 and four games up Aug. 2.
But this Angels club hardly seems poised for a similar run, or even one that would provide significant separation between them and the rest of the AL West.
Former ace John Lackey was just rounding into form last June after missing the first six weeks of the season because of an elbow injury, and the Angels’ lineup was intact.
This year’s club just lost its best hitter, first baseman Kendry Morales, who broke a bone above his left ankle Saturday and could be out for the season, and a bullpen that has pitched better of late suffered another setback Thursday.
The Angels built a 4-0 lead on Michael Ryan’s double and Kevin Frandsen’s run-scoring single in the second, Torii Hunter’s two-run homer in the fifth and Howie Kendrick’s run-scoring grounder in the sixth.
Weaver (5-2) left after seven innings, having increased his strikeout total to 83, which ties him for the major league lead with Arizona’s Dan Haren and San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum, and his streak of innings without giving up an earned run to 16.
But Kevin Jepsen gave up two runs in the eighth, issuing a leadoff walk, a single to Scott Podsednik, a wild pitch that advanced the runners, Jason Kendall’s run-scoring groundout and David DeJesus’ run-scoring single that made it 4-2.
Fernando Rodney replaced Jepsen and got Billy Butler to bounce into an inning-ending double play, Frandsen making a nice backhand stop of Butler’s grounder down the third base line.
The Angels added an insurance run in the ninth, Hunter doubling off the center-field wall and scoring on Mike Napoli’s sacrifice fly to make it 5-2.
That turned out to be decisive when much-maligned closer Brian Fuentes walked Jose Guillen to start the bottom of the ninth, struck out Alberto Callaspo and gave up a pinch-hit, two-run homer to Willie Bloomquist that made it 5-4.
Yuniesky Betancourt flied to center, Mike Aviles walked and Fuentes struck out Podsednik looking to close the Angels’ fifth win in six games.
Fuentes got his seventh save but left with a 5.93 earned-run average and renewed calls for him to be replaced at the back of the bullpen by Rodney. Manager Mike Scioscia said Fuentes is still his closer.
Jepsen, who has been dominant at times, left with a 6.16 ERA, and the bullpen ranks 13th in the league with a 5.07 ERA.
“It wasn’t crisp and clean, it obviously wasn’t the way we’d script it,” Scioscia said. “But we got it done; that’s the bottom line.”
The Angels are trying to keep a glass-half-full outlook. After all, they were six games under .500 (12-18) on May 6.
“We’ve been swimming upstream for a while and working hard,” Scioscia said. “We’re certainly not where we want to end up. We think we’re better than a .500 team. But there’s a lot of baseball ahead. We’ll worry about the standings when they become relevant.”
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