Angels' drop back-and-forth game to Royals

Jeff Fletcher, The Orange County Register on Aug 15, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Angels’ three-game winning streak came to an end in a back-and-forth game that turned on one ugly sequence in the seventh inning.

Just after the Angels took the lead in the sixth, they gave up two runs in the seventh. Their bats then went quiet over their final nine outs, dropping a 7-6 game to the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

Josh Lowe’s solo homer gave the Angels a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

In the seventh, the Angels called on left-hander Tayler Saucedo, who was pitching for the fourth time in five days.

Saucedo gave up a one-out single to Bobby Witt Jr. He then hung a slider to left-handed hitting Jac Caglianone, who hit the ball into the right field corner.

Lowe, the right fielder, had second baseman Vaughn Grissom and first baseman Nolan Schanuel lined up as cutoff men to throw toward the plate. Instead, he threw it to second. Witt, one of the fastest players in the majors, was waved home. Shortstop Zach Neto, who took the throw at second, still had a chance to get Witt at the plate, but his throw was off line.

As the ball got past catcher Tyler Heineman, Caglianone went to second. He then scored the go-ahead run on Michael Massey’s single against right-hander Luke Murphy.

The Angels (48-75) didn’t get a runner into scoring position over the final three innings, a surprisingly quiet end to what had been a wild game.

The Royals took a 3-0 lead, and then the Angels scored four runs. The Royals re-took the lead with two runs, and then the Angels scored single runs in the fifth and sixth to go ahead again.

Angels starter Grayson Rodriguez gave up three runs in four innings, exiting after throwing 89 pitches.

Rodriguez had trouble putting hitters away, which is how his pitch count got so high despite just two walks.

On the plus side, he struck out five and got 12 whiffs.

Also, the pitches that produced the Royals’ three runs were not even strikes. Massey hit a second-inning solo homer on a pitch that was just 15 inches off the ground. In the third, Caglianone pulled a two-run single into center on a pitch that was 13 inches off the ground.

The Angels took Rodriguez off the hook for a loss by continuing the offensive awakening that began a couple of days ago. After not scoring more than four runs for 16 straight games, they scored five on Wednesday and seven on Thursday.

On Friday, they scored four in the third inning, three on Schanuel’s bases-loaded double and another when Neto singled.

In the fifth, Schanuel drove in another run with a single. Mike Trout was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on the hit.