By MATT PIKE
Lane Thomas broke out at the plate, capping his day with a walk off home run, and the Kansas City Royals earned their first series sweep of the season on a rainy day at Kauffman Stadium, beating the Los Angeles Angels 11-9 in 10 innings.
Seth Lugo, who had been efficient through the season thus far, had a rough day on the mound as the Angels pulled ahead 6-0 through the first two innings. Mike Trout's two run home run in the first started the scoring, driving in Zach Neto after his leadoff single. Then in the second inning, Los Angeles added on even more, former Royal Adam Frazier's RBI double scoring Josh Lowe, then a double from Neto driving in both Travis d'Arnaud and Neto. A single from Jorge Soler scored Neto, ending the second inning with the big lead.
The Royals started the comeback in the bottom of the fifth inning as Nick Loftin doubled and then scored on a single from Isaac Collins. Then in the sixth inning, Kansas City cut the lead to three runs first with Bobby Witt Jr hitting his first home run of the season, a two run home run scoring Thomas who singled to lead off the inning, cutting the lead to 6-3 at the end of six.
Los Angeles got a run back in the seventh as Soler led the inning off with a double and scored on a single from Jo Adell. In the bottom half the Royals continued to fight back though, first with Collins hitting a solo home run off the right field foul pole, then after a lengthy rain delay a sacrifice fly by Vinnie Pasquantino drove in Michael Massey who walked following Collins home run to cut the Angels lead to 7-5.
The Angels added a run of insurance in the ninth inning, Oswald Peraza scoring on a passed ball from Royals reliever Alex Lange. In the bottom half of the inning, Kansas City completed the comeback tying the game, Pasquantino scoring after hitting a triple on a single by Salvador Perez, then Jac Caglianone tied the game with his second home run of the season high and deep to right field, bringing home Perez. The game was forced to extra innings when Carter Jensen popped up to d'Arnaud to end the inning tied 8-8.
Frazier started the 10th on second base for Los Angeles, and after Neto walked and Trout grounded into a force out, putting runners on the corners, another passed pass from reliever Lucas Erceg this time brought home Frazier to give the Angels the lead. In the bottom half, with Jensen at second base, he was moved to third on a groundout by Loftin. Then, Collins struck out, putting the Royals in danger.
Working the count full, Maikel Garcia was able to draw a walk from Los Angeles reliever Joey Lucchesi, putting runners on ther corners for Thomas. Lucchesi struggled with command against Thomas, putting the center fielder up 3-1 in the count, and on the 3-1 pitch, Lucchesi put a sinker down the middle for Thomas, who hit his first home run of the season ending the game with an 11-9 win and the first sweep of the year.
Erceg improved to 2-1 on the season, pitching one inning and giving up one unearned run, striking out two and walking one. Lugo, who entered with a 1.15 ERA, saw that spike to a 2.63 ERA after giving up seven runs on 14 hits with three strikeouts and one walk. At the plate, Thomas was 3-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs. Collins was 2-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and two RBIs while Witt Jr was 2-for-5 with a home run, a triple, and two RBIs.
Kansas City now has an off day on Monday, before heading to Sacramento on Tuesday to play the Athletics. Kris Bubic (2-1, 4.08 ERA, 29K's) is set to start the series for the Royals while the Athletics have yet to announce a projected starter. First pitch Tuesday will be at 8:40pm, pregame coverage will begin at 8 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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