Close doesn’t count for Angels in 6-3 loss to Royals
Reporting from Kansas City, Mo. -- As Maxwell Smart would say while holding his thumb and forefinger an inch apart on the old “Get Smart” television series, “Missed it by that much.”
Had Hideki Matsui’s sixth-inning drive been a tad taller instead of clanging off the railing above the right-field wall in Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night, the Angels designated hitter would have had a two-run home run instead of a double.
Had Billy Butler’s one-hop scorcher in the first hit the pocket of Angels shortstop Erick Aybar’s glove instead of kicking off the heel, it probably would have been an inning-ending double play ball instead of a run-scoring fielder’s choice.
And had Torii Hunter remained where he was stationed in center field instead of pinching in about five steps on a 1-and-2 pitch to David DeJesus in the fifth, perhaps he would have caught the two-run triple that sailed over his head.
That hit, as well as Yuniesky Betancourt’s leadoff triple and Chris Getz’s RBI single in the fifth, keyed a four-run rally that led the Kansas City Royals to a 6-3 victory and snapped the Angels’ win streak at three games.
“Baseball is a game of inches,” Hunter said, reciting a decades-old cliche that rang true for the Angels on Tuesday night. “The pitch on the outside corner could be a ball or a strike. A guy dives, and the ball hits the tip of his glove. That’s how you get beat sometimes.”
Hunter, a nine-time Gold Glove winner, was kicking himself for his decision, with one run in, runners on first and second and one out, to re-position himself against DeJesus, the former leadoff hitter who now bats third for the Royals.
DeJesus smoked a liner right at Hunter, who froze for a moment — “The ball hit right at you is the hardest one to play,” Hunter said — before sprinting back toward the wall.
“I knew I hit it well, but my first thought was it’s going to be caught,” DeJesus said. “But I saw him run in and then I looked up and saw his back and thought, ‘Oh, gee, I’ve got a chance here.’ ”
DeJesus then scored on Jose Guillen’s sacrifice fly against Angels starter Joel Pineiro for a 5-2 Royals lead.
“I was shallow,” Hunter said. “He’s a line-drive hitter, but not like that. The grass plays slow here, and I was trying to keep the guy on second from scoring [on a basehit]. My bad.
“Maybe I should have been a little deeper. I pinched in on my own. I think I have that right. You usually pinch when a guy has two strikes. Most guys don’t swing that hard with two strikes.”
The Angels rallied in the sixth when Maicer Izturis hit a leadoff home run and Hunter singled with one out. Matsui, who doubled and scored in the second, doubled to right, missing a home run by a few inches, a call that was confirmed by the umpires after video replay.
With runners on second and third, reliever Robinson Tejeda got Juan Rivera to fly to shallow center, the runners holding, and struck out Mike Napoli looking. Tejeda, Blake Wood and Joakim Soria (13th save) retired the last nine Angels, five by strikeout.
There was another pivotal moment in the bottom of the first, after Jason Kendall doubled with one out and took third on DeJesus’ sharp single to right.
Butler hit a one-hop smash that caromed off Aybar’s glove and bounced a few feet away. The shortstop recovered in time to get the force at second, but there was no throw to first.
“That was a rocket, and it came up a little bit on Erick,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “If he catches it clean, we turn a double play.”
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