Halos slug way to sweep after blister lifts Ohtani
ANAHEIM -- Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton homered to power the Angels to a 4-3 win over the Royals on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium, completing a three-game sweep and ameliorating some of the sting of a truncated start from Shohei Ohtani, who was forced to depart after four innings
ANAHEIM --
Kinsler launched a two-run home run to left field off Royals reliever
"I'm trying to help the team any way I can," Kinsler said. "It was a long stretch of frustration and not being able to help the team. Anytime you can get back into a place where you're making things happen, it's a good place."
The Angels took a 4-1 lead into the eighth, but the Royals scored two runs off rookie reliever Justin Anderson to pull within one. After Mike Moustakas and
Gordon then made the most of the reprieve, shooting a single just past an outstretched Kinsler to drive in two runs and narrow the deficit to 4-3. After
Parker returned to the mound for the ninth and posted a scoreless inning to convert a four-out save. The Angels are now 35-28 after completing a 5-1 homestand against the Rangers and Royals.
"Blake Parker did a great job," Scioscia said. "Justin just a little problem putting some guys away with his command, but all those guys threw the ball well."
Still, Ohtani's early exit cast a shadow over the victory. The two-way phenom came out to warm up for the fifth inning and everything seemed normal, but catcher
"Normally he throws a lot of curveballs," Maldonado said. "He threw a lot of fastballs when he was warming up, so I thought something was different with him."
Ohtani allowed one run on four hits while walking three and striking out four over four innings. It marked the second-shortest outing of the season for Ohtani, who exited his start against the Red Sox on April 17 with a blister on the same finger. Scioscia said Ohtani's blister is not as severe as his last one, though the Angels will have to wait before determining whether the malady will impact his next pitching appearance.
• Ohtani exits early with finger blister
Before the injury, Ohtani managed to work through a few jams and minimize damage. In the first, he gave up a leadoff single to Whit Merrifield and walked Moustakas to put runners on first and second with one out, but coaxed a 1-4-3 double play from Perez to emerge from the inning unscathed.
Ohtani then issued back-to-back walks to Dozier and Goins to load the bases, but he extricated himself from further trouble by striking out
The Angels' offense endured their own share of frustration against Royals right-hander
The Angels finished 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base, but they received just enough offense from Kinsler and Upton's homers to improve to 6-0 against the Royals this season.
"As long as you keep giving yourself those opportunities, eventually you feel like you're able to get it done in some of those situations," Upton said. "It's just baseball. The last few days we've been able to get ourselves in certain situations. Last night we were only able to scratch across one run -- that's all we needed. Just got to keep grinding, getting baserunners and seeing what we can do with runners in scoring position."
UP NEXT
The Angels will head to Minnesota and enjoy an off-day on Thursday before opening a three-game series against the Twins on Friday at 5:10 p.m. PT at Target Field. Right-hander
Maria Guardado covers the Angels for MLB.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.