ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - On a night when Mike Trout and Erick Aybar hit home runs and rookie Matt Shoemaker left the game with a lead, the Los Angeles Angels lost on a simple bunt play.
Pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson scored the go-ahead run for Kansas City in the 13th inning, when reliever Mike Morin fielded Alcides Escobar’s sacrifice in front of the mound and threw the ball past first base as second baseman Howie Kendrick ran over to take the throw. The Royals added two more runs and beat the Angels 7-4 Saturday night.
“It’s a play we work on all the time and it’s a play I make all the time,” Morin said. “It’s just unfortunate that it happened at an inopportune time and it cost us the game.”
Nori Aoki then hit an RBI single and Billy Butler capped the scoring with his second sacrifice fly. The rally began with a leadoff double by Danny Valencia, who drove a 3-2 pitch from Morin (0-1) off the fence in left-center.
Valencia had felt discomfort on two swings earlier in the at-bat, and was checked out by manager Ned Yost and a trainer before convincing them he was all right.
“The first thought on my mind was not making someone come off the bench with a 3-2 count after sitting on the bench for four hours,” Valencia said. “… Fortunately I got a hit there, because it would have looked even worse if I didn’t. It sparked a rally and we won the game.”
Shoemaker was charged with three runs - two earned - and eight hits in five innings while striking out six. The right-hander was making his third start since being inserted into the rotation on May 13.
“I felt good,” Shoemaker said. “The only thing I really wanted to do was get a little deeper in the game, put up as many zeroes as I could and give the team a chance to win the game.”
The Royals tied it in the seventh when Eric Hosmer, who tied a season high with four hits, scored on a double-play grounder by Salvador Perez with the bases loaded. The run was charged to Sean Burnett, who faced only one batter and gave up Hosmer’s leadoff single through the box. It was Burnett’s second appearance since his comeback from elbow surgery last August.
Aaron Crow (2-1) pitched two innings for the victory and Greg Holland got three outs for the save, ending the 4-hour, 53-minute marathon.
Royals right-hander James Shields pitched six innings, giving up four runs and nine hits, including Trout’s 10th homer and Aybar’s third.
“That’s a good hitting team over there. They grind out at-bats and they worked up my pitch count quite a bit today,” Shields said.
The Angels were trailing 3-0 when Aybar got them on the board in the fourth inning with his third homer of the season, a line drive that just made it into the first row of seats in the right field corner after a leadoff double by Raul Ibanez.
Los Angeles pulled ahead 4-3 with two runs in the fifth. Trout led off with a towering drive into the rock pile beyond the fence in left-center, and Albert Pujols followed with another deep flyball that looked like it was going out as well.
Left fielder Alex Gordon leaped above the bullpen fence and got his glove on it before it bounced off his cap, shoulder, chin and arm - then landed in his glove while he was on the seat of his pants. Third base umpire Andy Fletcher ruled it a catch, but manager Mike Scioscia challenged the call and Pujols settled for a double after a video review.
It was the 2,400th career hit for Pujols, who took third on a groundout and scored the go-ahead run on Shields’ wild pitch to Aybar.
A two-out error by Trout in center field led to an unearned run during Kansas City’s two-run third. Aoki and Hosmer opened the inning with singles, and Aoki scored on Butler’s first sacrifice fly. One out later, Perez hit a sinking liner that broke off Trout’s glove as he charged the ball on the dead run, and Lorenzo Cain hit an RBI single.
NOTES: Trout’s error was his second this season, matching his total in 148 games in the outfield last year. … For the second straight year, Trout’s 10th homer of the season came against the Royals in his 47th game. … C.J. Cron sent Cain to the center field fence for the final out of the Angels’ 12th with a runner at second base.
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