Then everything fell apart. By the time the inning was over, the Kansas City Royals had seven more runs and were on their way to a 9-5 victory on Wednesday night, giving them the rubber game of the series.
“That’s their decision. Obviously it’s not up to me,” Enright said. “I felt I could have worked out of things, but they felt they were doing what’s best for the team.”
Enright (0-2) was charged with four runs, five hits and two walks in two-plus innings. The right-hander threw 47 pitches before he was replaced by Mark Lowe, who gave up a two-run single by Billy Butler, a walk to Eric Hosmer and a bases-clearing double by Lorenzo Cain into the left field corner.
“He was wild at first, so I definitely wanted to wait until he threw me a strike,” Cain said. “On a 1-1 count, I was looking for that fastball up and he threw it right where I could do damage with it. I put a good swing on it and got it down the line.”
Cain scored on a passed ball by Chris Iannetta after advancing on an infield hit by Elliot Johnson, and Jarrod Dyson capped the rally with an RBI triple to right-center. It was the Royals’ most productive inning since Aug. 20, 2011, when they plated eight runs in the sixth.
“We were swimming upstream from the beginning, but we kept firing on the offensive side,” Scioscia said. “I thought our at-bats were good, and we took some walks when they were there. But we couldn’t get the one big hit with runners in scoring position to get us back close and give us a chance to take a lead. ”
The Angels started chipping away with an RBI single by Albert Pujols in the bottom of the third and a run-scoring single by Iannetta in the fourth, trimming the deficit to 8-2. They loaded the bases later that inning, but Wade Davis (3-3) retired Erick Aybar on an inning-ending double-play grounder after walking No. 9 hitter J.B. Shuck.
Davis was charged with four runs and nine hits over 5 1-3 innings. The right-hander was 0-3 over his previous four starts after back-to-back victories over Minnesota and Atlanta, both of which he departed with a 1-0 lead.
“I definitely wanted to get ahead in the count and get some quick outs, but I fell behind a lot of hitters and threw too many pitches — which kind of hindered the whole fact of me getting deep into the game,” Wade said after the Royals climbed within 1½ games of AL Central-leading Detroit.
The Halos got to the Royals’ bullpen in the sixth and sliced Kansas City’s lead to 8-4 with Alberto Callaspo’s sacrifice fly and Aaron Crow’s bases-loaded walk to Mike Trout. But Pujols followed with a rally-killing groundout to third base, and the Angels ended up stranding 11 baserunners.
Angels cleanup hitter Mark Trumbo led off the seventh with a double that prevented him from going hitless in the series. The only time in his career that he started every game in a series of three or more games and didn’t get a hit was April 21-24, 2011, when he was 0 for 14 in a four-game sweep by the Red Sox at Anaheim.
“I never felt comfortable because their lineup kept turning around,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I mean, here comes Pujols. Here comes Trumbo. Here comes Trout. Here comes (Josh) Hamilton. That’s just a tough, tough lineup.”
Trout made the final outcome a little more respectable with his eighth home run, a solo shot to center field in the eighth against hard-throwing right-hander Kelvin Herrera. Dyson scaled the thinly-padded fence on a ball he had no chance to catch and sprained his right ankle, forcing him out of the game.
Butler, who entered this series in a 4-for-35 rut, went 8 for 13 with a homer and nine RBIs — as many as he had in 103 at-bats over his previous 25 games. He was the top designated hitter in the league last season and won his first Silver Slugger Award with a .313 average. 29 homers and 107 RBIs.
NOTES: Scioscia commented before the game on remarks owner Arte Moreno made earlier on Wednesday to FOXSports.com at the owners’ meetings in New York that his job was not in jeopardy despite the team’s 15-25 record and 11-game deficit in the AL West behind Texas. “Arte has always been very supportive,” said Scioscia, whose contract runs through the 2018 season. “Arte knows how hard I take the non-performance of this team and how we need to get there. It hits me as hard as it hits Arte. … ” Fred White, who broadcast Royals games on radio for 25 seasons beginning in 1973 and remained with the organization in several capacities, died Wednesday in a hospice at age 76 due to complications from melanoma — just one day after the club announced his retirement as director of broadcast services and the Royals Alumni.