{"id":133699,"date":"2025-09-05T02:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/133699\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T02:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:31:11","slug":"bobby-witt-jr-s-eighth-inning-homer-helps-kc-avoid-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/133699\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Witt Jr.’s eighth inning homer helps KC avoid sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — – Bobby Witt Jr<\/a>. hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth inning and the Kansas City Royals<\/a> beat the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> 4-3 on Thursday night to avoid a sweep in a three-game series.<\/p>\n

The Royals hit four solo homers in a game where all seven runs came on home runs.<\/p>\n

Lucas Erceg<\/a> (7-4) struck out two in one inning and Carlos Est\u00e9vez picked up his major league-best 37th save.<\/p>\n

Angels starter Kyle Hendricks<\/a> allowed two runs on three hits in six innings, while Kansas City starter Noah Cameron<\/a> allowed three runs on five hits in five innings.<\/p>\n

The Angels got on the board in the first on a three-run homer by Luis Rengifo<\/a>. With two outs, Taylor Ward<\/a> singled, Jo Adell<\/a> walked and Rengifo hit a slider 384 feet down the left-field line.<\/p>\n

The Royals answered in the second on Adam Frazier<\/a>‘s home run, the 1,000th hit of his MLB career. Vinnie Pasquantino<\/a> connected on his 29th home run of the season leading off the fourth inning to trim the deficit to 3-2.<\/p>\n

The Royals tied it when Salvador Perez<\/a> hit his 24th home run of the season, leading off the seventh inning.<\/p>\n

Ryan Zeferjahn<\/a> (6-5) took the loss.<\/p>\n

Key Moment<\/p>\n

After the Royals tied the score in the bottom of the seventh, Erceg retired the Angels in order in the eighth.<\/p>\n

Key Stat<\/p>\n

With his home run, Perez reached 495 career RBI at Kauffman Stadium, breaking a tie with Frank White for the third most RBI in the history of the ballpark. He trails George Brett (839) and Hal McRae (534).<\/p>\n

Up Next<\/p>\n

The Angels return to start a three-game series with the Athletics. The Angels will send RHP Jos\u00e9 Soriano (10-9, 3.68 ERA) to the mound to face RHP Mason Barnett<\/a> (0-1, 11.25).<\/p>\n

The Royals continue their nine-game homestand against the Twins. RHP Michael Wacha<\/a> (8-11, 3.52) will start for Kansas City. Minnesota has not named its starter.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. — – Bobby Witt Jr. hit a two-out solo home run in the eighth inning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[84203,352,2321,2322,363,99],"class_list":["post-133699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-84203","tag-espn","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}