KANSAS CITY -- After showcasing a couple of young starters and getting victories in the opening two games of their series against the Royals, it was time for wily veteran Kyle Hendricks to take center stage for the Angels.
Hendricks followed the performances of Mitch Farris and Caden Dana with a strong outing as well. Allowing two runs on three hits and three walks over six innings, Hendricks left his start on Thursday with a one-run lead. But Salvador Perez and Bobby Witt Jr. had solo homers late against the Angels’ bullpen, resulting in a 4-3 loss for the Halos to end their long road trip at 5-5.
The general rule in baseball is that solo homers won’t beat a club. But the Royals were an exception to the rule in the series finale. All four of their runs came on solo homers to trump the three-run homer hit by Angels third baseman Luis Rengifo in the first inning.
Hendricks allowed hard-hit homers to Adam Frazier and Vinnie Pasquantino. Otherwise, it was another case of Hendricks inducing soft contact and giving his team a chance to win.
“At the end of the day, I thought I made a lot of really good pitches,” Hendricks said. “The ones I didn’t execute were outside the zone, so there were a couple of bad walks. But I didn’t really miss anything over the heart of the plate. The two solo homers were on pitches I was trying to make. [The Royals] just had a different game plan than I had been seeing most of the year.”
The Royals have dramatically improved their chase rate in recent weeks, and Hendricks noticed that early.
“When I get ahead 0-1, you see most teams get aggressive,” Hendricks said. “But the Royals were waiting me out. You have to force them into the zone and force them into contact. [Catcher Logan] O’Hoppe was so good working our pitchers in this series. He forced me back onto the plate. You are going to get beat with that sometimes, but you are also going to get a lot of outs.”
The Angels forced Royals starter Noah Cameron to throw 34 pitches in the first inning, but they grounded into double plays in the second, third and fourth innings, which took the steam out of their offense.
Meanwhile, the Royals kept chipping away one solo homer at a time.
The last homer hurt the most as Witt snapped a 3-3 tie in the eighth with his game-winning homer to left-center field off Ryan Zeferjahn.
“Witt is one of the best players in the game,” Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery said. “You’ve got to be careful facing him there. He did what he was supposed to do.”
The Angels had high hopes of a three-game series sweep, especially after Rengifo lined his three-run homer inside the left-field foul pole in the first. But they still ended the 10-game road trip 5-5 against three teams (Texas, Houston, Kansas City) that are battling for playoff spots.
“This one is a little disappointing to finish it,” Montgomery said. “But if you had told us we were going to roll out on a 10-game road trip in late August and early September and come back .500, I would say I’d be OK with that.”