Jo Adell's 3-run homer and Kevin Pillar's big night propel the Angels past the Royals 9-3
Jo Adell hit a three-run homer and Kevin Pillar had three hits and three RBIs in the Los Angeles Angels' 9-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
Logan O'Hoppe had a two-run double during a four-run seventh for the Angels, who won for only the sixth time in 22 games.
Tyler Anderson (3-4) yielded three runs and seven hits over 6 2/3 effective innings for the Halos, ending his five-start winless skid. The left-hander retired 12 straight at one point.
Salvador Pérez had an early RBI double for the Royals, whose three-game winning streak ended.
Cole Ragans (2-3) allowed eight hits and five runs over 6 1/3 innings for Kansas City, recording a season-low three strikeouts in his first loss in four starts.
Bobby Witt Jr. singled, stole second and scored on Pérez's double down the left field line in the first, but Pillar led off the Angels' second with a triple when MJ Melendez misplayed his drive to left.
Adell connected two batters later with a 419-foot shot. The long-hyped prospect could be finding a groove in the majors after a half-decade of false starts, hitting three homers in his last four games and seven this season.
Cole Tucker, Taylor Ward and Pillar then strung together consecutive singles in the third, and Ward scored on a wild pitch to put the Angels up 5-1.
After Witt singled home Maikel Garcia in the sixth, the Royals chased Anderson with Kyle Isbel's soft RBI single in the seventh. Angels reliever Adam Cimber escaped a tight jam for the second straight night.
Pillar then dropped a bases-loaded, two-out single inside the line in right field in the seventh off reliever Nick Anderson, and O'Hoppe followed with a double to left.
Pillar was designated for assignment by the White Sox last month, and he made his Angels debut May 1, shortly after Mike Trout's knee injury. The veteran is off to a solid start back in his native Los Angeles area, hitting two homers and driving in six runs in a win at Pittsburgh earlier this week.
UP NEXT
Kansas City's Seth Lugo (5-1, 1.92 ERA) goes for his sixth victory in his last eight starts when the takes the mound in the series finale against the Angels' Patrick Sandoval (2-5, 4.85 ERA), the beneficiary of Pillar's six-RBI game in Pittsburgh.
