Royals offense cooks Troutless Angels, wins series opener 10-4

Michael Wacha looked great through six, and then struggled

Few teams are more dependent on one player than the Kansas City Royals are on Bobby Witt Jr. Junior entered tonight’s contest with the highest fWAR in the American League and the 2nd highest overall on a team featuring just three above league average hitters according to OPS+.

So, it’s a little extra sweet to see the offense put up a crooked number on a night Bobby was held hitless. Led by Maikel Garcia, Vinnie Pasquantino, and Dairon Blanco, Kansas City steamrolled a depleted Los Angeles Angels team in a 10-4 series-opening win.

Kansas City improves to 23-16, gaining a game on Cleveland in the AL Central standings, while the Angels fall to 10 games under .500 at 14-24.

As has been the case for much of this season, the Royals started slow, watching Angels’ lefty starter Reid Detmers throw two perfect innings to begin his 9th start of the season. However, they jumped on Detmers in the 3rd with a pair of homers. Hunter Renfroe walked to lead off the inning before scoring on Blanco’s first homer of the season to put Kansas City up 2-0.

Back-to-back singles put runners at the corners with nobody out, but Garrett Hampson ran into an out, getting back-picked at third after Garcia got caught in a run down trying to steal second. Witt Jr’s strikeout turned a golden opportunity into a potentially massive missed opportunity, but Pasquantino saved the day with a titanic 442-foot shot over the right field fence. The Royals led 4-0 after the inning was done.

Pasquantino added another run to the tally with a sacrifice fly in the 5th before a Salvador Perez RBI single made it a 6-0 game. A Garcia two-RBI double in the 6th broke the game open even more, putting Kansas City up 8-0.

As the Royals offense unloaded on a struggling Angels pitching staff, Kansas City’s starter Michael Wacha quietly put together one of his best starts of the season. It was a timely start, coming five days after Wacha failed to make it out of the 4th inning and gave up seven runs on nine hits against the Rangers in his last appearance.

The middle of Kansas City’s order had added another insurance run in the 7th after Pasquantino led off with a double and scored on another Salvy RBI single, making it a 9-0 game. Wacha had made easy work of Los Angeles through six innings, giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out six batters and needing just over 70 pitches to do it.

He did however run into trouble in the 7th. Three walks and a Garcia error paved the way for two runs, forcing Matt Quatraro to turn to Daniel Lynch with one out and the bases loaded. He gave up a sac fly to make it a 10-3 game but was able to get out of the inning without further damage. Hampson got one of those runs back with an RBI double in the next half-inning. The Angels would add one more run but Kansas City came away with the 10-4 win.

The Royals sit just 1.5 games back of the Guardians with three more games to come against a hapless Angels squad.

Up Next: Royals at Angels, Friday, May 10, 8:38 PM CDT, Angel Stadium. RHP Alec Marsh (3-0, 2.70 ERA) v. Griffin Canning (1-4, 6.69 ERA)