KANSAS CITY -- The Angels challenged two calls on one play on Friday night and wound up with nothing but double trouble.
The challenge shutout was symbolic of how the weekend series opener would go for the Angels as they fell to the Royals, 6-3, at Kauffman Stadium. A bizarre fourth-inning sequence had replay officials working overtime to determine both a fair-or-foul call down the left-field line and a safe-or-out call at the plate.
After the play had been thoroughly examined through replay, the Angels were 0-for-2.
The Royals had a 2-0 lead with two runners on, when Royals catcher Elias Díaz smashed a liner down the left-field line off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi, which was immediately ruled fair for a two-run double. Carter Jensen scored easily and trailing runner Isaac Collins was ruled safe on a bang-bang play at the plate for a 4-0 Kansas City lead.
Angels manager Kurt Suzuki challenged both the fair call in left and the safe call at the plate. Both decisions went Kansas City’s way and the Royals went on to a five-run inning.
“It was close, but one of those where there’s not enough evidence to overturn,” Suzuki said. “The call stands.”
Kikuchi wound up allowing five hits in the fourth. In the other four innings that he worked, the left-hander was virtually flawless and didn’t allow a hit.
“One inning got him tonight,” Suzuki said of Kikuchi. “Other than that, I thought his stuff was as good as it has been all year. It’s a long season. He’s showing some improvement.”
Kikuchi had worked six scoreless innings in his previous start against San Diego and picked up where he left off against the Padres. But in the fourth, Bobby Witt Jr. started the inning with a double. With one out, Lane Thomas walked and Starling Marte hit a flair to right field that Jo Adell got a glove on, but couldn’t hold. The Angels wound up getting a forceout as Witt scored and then the Royals went to work with four consecutive ringing hits that forced the Angels into a steep uphill climb.
The Halos couldn’t get much going against Royals starter Noah Cameron for six innings.
“It was tough,” Suzuki said. “Cameron had his breaking ball and changeup working pretty good, and he was locating his fastball. We had some close balls down the left-field line that were barely foul. He did his job.”
The Angels, however, made it interesting in the seventh. An RBI single by Zach Neto, an RBI walk to Mike Trout and Adell’s run-scoring forceout made it 5-3. They had the bases loaded against right-handed reliever Nick Mears, when switch-hitter Yoán Moncada was called on to pinch-hit for Oswald Peraza. The Royals brought on left-hander Daniel Lynch IV and Moncada thus had to turn around and bat right-handed. Moncada started the game just 1-for-18 from the right side.
Suzuki said he didn’t think Lynch was in play for a matchup with Moncada because of limited warmup time.
“We didn’t think [Lynch] was ready,” Suzuki said. “We thought he was getting ready for [Nolan Schanuel].”
Lynch struck out Moncada and the Royals held steady from that point on.
Going forward, the Angels just want to see Kikuchi pitching as he did in four of the five innings that he was on the mound on Friday.
“They kind of got the momentum rolling on him,” Suzuki said. “They were hitting his fastball when he got the ball in the middle of the plate and up.”