Kansas City Royals vs. Los Angeles Angels

The former All-Star closer rebounded from a disastrous blown save with a breezy ninth inning Friday night, helping a strong start by Danny Duffy and a two-run homer by Eric Hosmer stand up in a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

Johnny Cueto has been everything promised for the Kansas City Royals since being acquired from the Cincinnati Reds.

The Royals’ Salvador Perez had spent the last three games on the bench, nursing his ailing right wrist.

“Today”, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said, “is just a one we’ve got to turn the page on”. He had recorded just five outs, and the Royals gave him one of those with a sacrifice. “We finally got some things to go our way”. “As the inning prolonged, we said we could keep [pinch-runner Shane] Victorino in the game in right field, put Kole at first, and then it got interesting and fun”.

After the Angels showed some signs of life with four hits against Johnny Cueto in the second, an inning that netted them just one run, they didn’t score again in his eight innings.

Davis, who had missed the previous six games with back stiffness, gave up two runs in the eighth. The Royals went on to a 4-1 victory over Los Angeles on Friday night. “That’s one of the best teams in baseball”, Street said. Matt Shoemaker (5-9) absorbed most of the damage for the Angels, the right-hander failing to make it through the frame in his second consecutive disastrous start.

Royals fan Corey Wilson told the Star he and fiancée Michelle Giddens conceived their daughter, Piper, after the Royals won the American League Championship Series to clinch a spot in the World Series, their first trip to the series since 1985. That’s the second most in major-league history to the 1998-99 New York Yankees, who had Mariano Rivera in his prime.

“I felt like I was kind of aiming the ball a little bit in the first two innings”, Cueto said through a translator. The Angels, who have dropped two games behind AL West-leading Houston, have mustered only 19 runs en route to losing nine straight away from home for the first time since July 17-25, 1993. Shoemaker is 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in his career against the Royals….

Angels: SS Erick Aybar (lower back) remained out of the lineup, though he did take grounders before the game. There is still no word on a rehab assignment, though he could be sent out in the coming week. Despite Greg Holland’s ERA at a season high, and bad results in his last few outings, I’m less anxious about Holland than at any time this season.