Angels lose to Royals after controversial play

KANSAS CITY >> A nice tidy Angels ballgame – heading toward a rare victory for hard-luck Matt Shoemaker – all went up in smoke in one wild exchange that began with a simple bunt.

A two-run Angels lead in the seventh iing vanished on that play and the Angels lost, 7-5, to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Shoemaker had been pitching well and the Angels had given him a 3-1 lead, a veritable bounty of run-support considering his recent fate.

Alex Gordon dropped a bloop single into left and then Paulo Orlando singled, putting ruers at first and second with no outs for Raul Mondesi Jr.

Mondesi dropped down a bunt. Shoemaker fielded it but then threw the ball away, his throw sailing past first about the same time as Mondesi reached the bag.

After Kole Calhoun picked it up in foul territory, he slipped.

When the whole play was over, two runs had scored and Mondesi was at third.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia argued vociferously with the umpires for about five minutes before they then went to the headsets to talk to the replay center for another six minutes. Scioscia believed that Mondesi ran inside the baseline and interfered with the throw. After umpires disagreed, Scioscia played the game under protest.

The protest isn’t likely to be considered even valid, because it was of a judgment call, not a rules interpretation.

After all of that, the Royals then took the lead on a Jarrod Dyson triple, and Dyson scored an insurance run on a sacrifice fly.

All five runs were charged to Shoemaker, whose outing was ruined at the end.

He was dominant early, retiring the first 13 hitters before a three-batter hiccup resulted in the Royals’ first run.

Sal Perez lined a double into right-center, the ball just ticking off the glove of diving Calhoun. Gordon then singled and Orlando hit a ground-rule double.

The Angels could have had a bigger lead before the seventh-iing mess. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth, but scored just one run.

In the ninth iing, the Angels rallied against All-Star closer Wade Davis, scoring two runs. They had the bases loaded — the tying run just a base hit away — when it ended on a Jett Bandy strikeout.

Advertisement