Royals Nail Finley, Then Angels

At first, it appeared the ball had hit Chuck Finley in the back.

But then the replay popped up on the Kauffman Stadium video board: A smash off the bat of Kansas City's Jeff King, straight into the Anaheim left-hander's pitching elbow.

X-rays revealed a bruise, not a break, but the Angels never recovered from the injury to their ace. The Royals scored three times in the fourth inning and went on to beat Anaheim 4-3.

"That ball was hit as hard as you could hit a ball," Anaheim catcher Matt Walbeck said. "He crushed it."

Finley (8-5) left immediately after being hit by the line drive, which bounced into foul territory for a single. Shigetosi Hasegawa, who replaced Finley, was in the clubhouse when Finley was injured.

The Royals took full advantage in the fourth, building a 4-1 lead on Terry Pendleton's sacrifice fly, Mike Sweeney's RBI double and an RBI grounder by Johnny Damon.

"An unfortunate injury like that does affect a guy," Royals manager Tony Muser said. "You're sitting down there in the bullpen, and all of a sudden, boom you're in the ballgame."

Finley did not return to the stadium after being X-rayed at a hospital. He will be re-evaluated in 48 hours.

"I didn't know where he got hit until I went out there and saw it," Angels manager Terry Collins said. "Once I saw where it was, I knew he was done."

This was the first meeting between the two teams since their night of brawls on June 2 in Kansas City. No lingering ill will was apparent Friday.

Felix Martinez, who threw a sucker punch during one fight, was optioned to Triple-A Omaha by the Royals shortly after the incident. And Anaheim catcher Phil Nevin, who started one fight when he charged the mound after being hit by pitch, was not in the Angels lineup.

Angels reliever Rich DeLucia hit Jose Offerman with a pitch in the eighth inning, but Muser said the Royals didn't believe it was intentional.

"If you hit somebody in a one-run game, that's pretty dangerous to do," Muser said. "I doubt he did it on purpose."

Hipolito Pichardo (5-7) won for the first time in almost a month. He gave three runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings.

Pichardo had been 0-1 in three starts since beating the Chicago Cubs 6-3 on June 26.

Jeff Montgomery struck out the side in the ninth for his 24th save, including 13 in a row.

"I had good stuff today," Montgomery said. "I was very pleased with the quality of all my pitches. The curveball was good, the slider was good, the change-up was good, the fastball was good. That's what I'd like to have every time I go out there."

Cecil Fielder hit a two-run homer in the Anaheim sixth to cut Kansas City's lead to 4-3.

Darin Erstad's RBI single gavAnaheim a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Royals tied it in the bottom of the inning when third baseman Dave Hollins misplayed a potential double-play ball.

With the bases loaded and one out, Hollins fielded King's ground ball cleanly but hesitated and was unable to force out Jermaine Allensworth at third. Hollins then threw to first too late to catch King, who got the RBI when Damon scored on the play.

Anaheim's Garrett Anderson extended his career-best hitting streak to 21 games the longest current streak in the majors with a sixth-inning single.

Notes: