Royals fans enraptured with a delightful 8-4 win over Angels

Tonight, the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 8-4 at Angel Stadium. Even that comfortable score was a misnomer: this was a wire-to-wire dominating performance by Kansas City, who brought an 8-2 lead into the ninth inning.

The first inning of the game was a particular blast—provided you rooted for the boys in blue as opposed to the home team. Maikel Garcia worked a full count before doubling to left field, and Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a single that moved Garcia to third base. Angels starter Sam Aldegheri uncorked a wild pitch, which allowed Garcia to score and Witt to take second base. Salvador Perez then singled Witt home, resulting in a 2-0 lead and Perez’s 1,013th career RBI to move into second place all time in Royals franchise history.

Meanwhile, Cole Ragans was a demon on the mound. Ragans struck out the side (with one Nolan Schanuel single peppered in for flavor) in the first inning. The then responded by…striking out the side in the second inning, this time allowing no baserunners at all. It took until the second out of the third inning for an Angels batter to make an out on a ball in play.

Really, Ragans just made two bad pitches in his five innings. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Christian Moore singled on a middle-middle cutter, and two batters later Bryce Teodosio homered on a fastball that wasn’t down enough or in enough to be effective. But those resultant two runs were all Ragans would allow in a brilliant five innings of work, during which he only walked one and struck out 10.

The Royals also kept chipping away. Doubles by Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino pushed their lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning, and Adam Frazier knocked in what would end up as the winning two runs in the seventh inning—though he did get caught in a rundown. So it goes; the Royals led 5-2 after that swing.

The Law Offices of Garcia and Witt continued their streak of winning in the eighth inning. Garcia notched his third hit of the evening, and Witt hit his second of the game; the two men at the top of the lineup combined for four runs scored and three RBIs. Also, props to Carter Jensen, doubles machine, who hit yet another double to set the table for the top of the order.

Sam Long eventually wrapped up the game, but not before going on a side quest where he gave up a few baserunners and runs. Long left a splitter up in the zone, which Taylor Ward dutifully deposited into center field for his 35th blast of the year. Jo Adell then singled on a middle-middle fastball, and Logan O’Hoppe walked. Long did manage to get a double play out of Oswald Peraza to trade one run for two outs, but a passed ball scored another.

Though it was a nice game tonight, Kansas City has officially been left behind in their pursuit of a playoff spot. With a max of 84 wins available, they’re physically unable to get to the 85-win mark that the Tigers, Guardians, and Red Sox have reached at the moment—and the Astros are at 84 right now, too. I know that a lot of people thought we’d be in paradise right now, but we aren’t. Predictions are hard sometimes. Maybe next year.

I would like to thank you all for another year of game thread and recap commenting. This is my last Royals game recap of the year, as this is the last Monday or Tuesday game of the season. Signing off.