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  Saturday, May 27 8:05pm ET
Royals catch Vaughn napping in 10th
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Kansas City Royals tied the game with a blast hit out of the park and won it with a popup that barely got out of the infield.

Dave McCarty hit a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning, and Carlos Beltran scored the winning run in the 10th on a sacrifice fly just past first base as the Royals beat the Anaheim Angels 6-5 Saturday night.

The Royals, who rallied from 5-3 down in the ninth against Troy Percival, won for the 12th time this season in their final at-bat.

"There were a ton of things that happened, to get us to that point," Kansas City manager Tony Muser said. "People want to talk about the winning run but there were a lot of good things before that."

Jermaine Dye led off the 10th with a single off Eric Weaver (0-2) and went to third on Beltran's single. After Mark Quinn was intentionally walked, Jorge Fabregas hit a grounder to Weaver, who got the force at home.

Joe Randa then popped one into foul territory and first baseman Mo Vaughn backpedaled to catch it about 30 feet behind first.

"I saw Mo hesitated," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I couldn't tell if he couldn't get it out of his glove. It was a heck of a play to get back and make that catch."

Vaughn said he hesitated because he didn't want to throw the ball away.

"I didn't want to wheel and make a bad throw on an angle in case he didn't go," he said.

Instead, Beltran scored easily standing up.

"I was thinking Mo Vaughn caught the ball, I'm going home," he said. "If (Darin) Erstad caught the ball maybe I would stay because he had a better idea what was going on. Maybe Mo was thinking I was going to stay because it was shallow."

Dan Reichert (3-3) pitched two hitless innings for the win.

Percival, who leads the AL with 14 saves, blew his third chance of the season in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Scott Pose led off with a single before McCarty hit Kansas City's first pinch-hit homer since Shane Mack did it May 22, 1998 against Texas.

"I was choking up on the bat just trying to put the ball in play," McCarty said. "He throws so hard he provides all the power for you. I was fortunate to get the barrel on the ball."

The Angels had scored three runs in the eighth to take a 5-3 lead. Vaughn walked off Jerry Spradlin with one out and Tim Salmon doubled to left sending Vaughn to third. Spradlin then walked Garet Anderson intentionally to load the bases.

Troy Glaus' infield single tied the score and Ben Molina's two-run single with two outs made it 5-3.

"There is no such thing as an easy loss, so it's not like you're going to take one harder than another," Scioscia said. "The season is a marathon and doesn't hinge on one game or one inning."

Erstad hit a two-run homer in the third inning for Anaheim.

The Royals answered with three runs in the bottom half off Kent Bottenfield, but they could have had more if not for having two runners retired on the bases.

Jorge Fabregas led off with a single. Jeff Reboulet followed with a grounder to short, but second baseman Adam Kennedy bobbled Benji Gil's throw, allowing Fabregas to advance safely. However, Fabregas thought he was out and wandered off the base, and Kennedy tagged him out.

Rey Sanchez then singled to center. Reboulet slid under the tag at third and Sanchez went to second on the throw. Johnny Damon tied it with a two-run single.

With two outs, Mike Sweeney walked and Dye hit an RBI single. Dye took second on the throw to third, but Sweeney was thrown out at the plate, ending the inning.

Game notes
The Royals are 228-204 record all-time vs. the Angels, including 105-106 in Kansas City. The 228 wins is the most against any opponent. ... The Angels tied a club record for home runs in a month with 44, first done in August 1982. They now have homered in 39 of their 49 games. ... Molina extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games with a one-out single in the third. ... Quinn had his 10-game hitting streak snapped.

 


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