Michael Lorenzen pitched seven scoreless innings, MJ Melendez hit a home run, and the Kansas City Royals defeated the Los Angeles Angels 3-0 on Wednesday, marking their sixth win in seven games.
The Royals disrupted Johnny Cueto’s season debut. Cueto, a 17-year veteran who helped Kansas City win the 2015 World Series, hadn’t pitched in the majors since September 27 of last year with the Marlins.
After signing a minor league deal with the Angels in July, he was called up from Triple-A Salt Lake earlier Wednesday. Cueto gave up three runs on eight hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings and left to applause from the Kansas City crowd.
Lorenzen (7-6) allowed four hits, two walks, and a hit batter, and struck out five. He only let two runners reach scoring position, with three of the four hits he allowed coming in the first three innings.
“I wasn’t very happy with the first three innings. I was kind of spraying the ball all over the place, getting frustrated with myself,” Lorenzen said. “I guess I was able to make that adjustment and my pitch quality got a lot better.”
Lorenzen gave up a hit to Taylor Ward to start the game but got Zach Neto to ground into a double play. “It was more of a mentality of let’s just attack here and not work the edges as much. He was on the attack more so after the first couple innings,” Quatraro said.
John Schreiber threw a scoreless eighth inning, and Lucas Erceg had a perfect ninth to earn his sixth save, and fourth with the Royals.
The Royals (71-56) stayed tied with the Minnesota Twins for the second wild-card spot and moved within 2.5 games of AL Central-leading Cleveland with their first home series win in a month.
