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Sunday, May 21 4:05pm ET
Santiago gives Royals a chance | |||||
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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Kansas City manager Tony Muser thought Jose Santiago's effort in the Royals' 10-6 victory over Anaheim Sunday deserved more than just a victory. "He should get a win and a save. That was a pretty good relief job," Muser said after Santiago quickly restored order to a wild game. The Angels had scored six runs on seven hits, erasing Kansas City's 5-0 lead, in the two innings prior to Santiago's entrance at the start of the sixth. All Santiago (4-1) did was retire all 12 men he faced, four of them on strikeouts. "I went in there thinking about throwing first-pitch strikes, and keeping the ball down," Santiago said. "That team has been hitting the ball good, and I needed to throw strikes." Santiago's effort, and another pivotal two-inning relief stint by Jason Rakers, made Kansas City's 14-hit attack stand up. The Royals beat up Kent Bottenfield for nine runs in 4 1/3 innings, with Joe Randa, David McCarty and Carlos Beltran all homering off the Angels ace. Garret Anderson hit a grand slam for the Angels. It was the record sixth slam of the day in the majors, and helped erase a 5-0 lead the Royals had built, mostly on Randa's three-run homer in the third, his seventh. "When they came back, it didn't surprise us," said Randa, who was one of three Royals with two hits, while Beltran had his first three-hit game of the season. "That shows you what kind of team they have. They have a lot of gamers over there. But we have that type of team, too. You just have to keep grinding and hope you come out on top." The Royals, who started a 12-game road trip with a major league-worst 2-11 mark away from Kauffman Stadium, finished 6-6 on their longest road trip of the season. "This makes a statement to all the people who were talking about how terrible we are on the road," said Muser, whose club had gone 0-9 on its previous trip. "It could've been even better, but we were competitive. We'll take 6-6 and go home," he said. After Anaheim tied it at 5 on Anderson's slam and Troy Glaus' solo homer in the third, Jeff Reboulet hit an RBI single in the fourth and scored on Mike Sweeney's double to make it 7-5. Rakers took over in the bottom of the fourth and surrendered an RBI single to Mo Vaughn that made it 7-6, but then retired the last four men he faced to set the stage for Santiago. McCarty's two-run homer in the fifth gave Kansas City a 9-6 lead and finished off Bottenfield (3-3). It took the Angels only two swings in the third inning to erase Kansas City's early 5-0 lead. With the bases loaded on two walks and Vaughn's single, Anderson hit his 10th homer of the season. Glaus followed two pitches later with his 14th. The Royals had taken the 5-0 lead on Mark Quinn's run-scoring single in the first, Beltran's solo homer in the second and Randa's homer in the third. Chris Fussell, who didn't allow his first hit until Vaughn's single with two outs in the third, gave up five runs, four hits and four walks in three innings. "They scored a lot of runs with two outs and got a lot of hits with two strikes," said Bottenfield, summing up the outing. "My command wasn't really on. I didn't throw enough good pitches, and they hit the bad ones."
Game notes | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Kansas City Clubhouse Anaheim Clubhouse RECAPS Detroit 7 Boston 5
Kansas City 10
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