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Angels open 10-game trip with loss to Royals

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DailyNews.com 
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Angels starting pitcher Carson Fulmer throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Kansas City Royals on Monday night in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Angels showed some late-inning fight on Monday. But against a Kansas City Royals team that appears to be hitting another gear for a run at the playoffs, it wasn’t enough.

Shut out through six innings and trailing by three entering the seventh, the Angels made it interesting before coming up short in a 5-3 loss at Kauffman Stadium. The Angels closed within a run in the seventh when Jo Adell blasted a two-run double off of All-Star right-hander Seth Lugo.

But the Royals promptly got those two runs back in the seventh when reliever Victor Mederos – working in his third inning – gave up a two-run double to Salvador Perez.

“I thought it was a good pitch that he made to the catcher (Perez),” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “I mean, (Perez) has been doing that a long time. I thought (Mederos) got that ball in there and (Perez) got up on it and kept it fair.”

Coming off a three-game sweep in Cincinnati when they outscored the Reds 28-3, the Royals did some damage against Angels starter Carson Fulmer to gain control in the fourth. The big blow was a two-run homer by Paul DeJong that gave Kansas City a 3-0 lead.

The Angels had only two hits through six against Lugo but then went to work offensively in the seventh and got a solo homer by Zach Neto in the eighth.

“I liked the fight the whole game,” Washington said. “Lugo is pretty good. It wasn’t like we had an easy way to go out there. But we battled him and at the end we got some runs. But we just couldn’t put him away.”

The seventh-inning rally, which started with one out, could have been even more productive. Logan O’Hoppe launched a booming drive that left fielder MJ Melendez caught just in front of the wall. Then a walk to Brandon Drury and consecutive doubles by Mickey Moniak and Adell gave the Angels a chance.

“If you can stay with a good pitcher like that, hopefully toward the end you get an opportunity to wear him down,” Washington said. “We started to get to him in the seventh. But by that time he had already done his damage.”

After watching Mederos work two scoreless innings, Washington liked the right-hander’s chances of having a successful seventh. But Bobby Witt Jr. started the inning with an infield single before Vinnie Pasquantino walked. Then it was Perez delivering the big blow when it seemed the Angels had momentum.

“I saw (Mederos) throwing the ball very well,” Washington said. “He moved his fastball around and dropped some good breaking balls in there. So, I thought he could get through that inning.”

Mederos agreed with Washington that Perez deserved credit for hammering a high fastball into the left field corner when the Angels desperately needed a shutdown inning.

“I probably should have gone back to the slider,” Mederos said. “But I still thought I made a good pitch.”

While dropping their third game in a row, the Angels have to contemplate a streak in which they have now gone seven straight games scoring three runs or less. Hitting coach Johnny Washington was ejected in the sixth inning after objecting to a strike call by home plate umpire Vic Carapazza with Niko Kavadas at the plate.

“He (Johnny Washington) thought that pitch was low,” Ron Washington said. “And it was. But he did what he felt he had to do to protect his hitters.”