(Sports Network) - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will try to bounce back this evening when they take on the Kansas City Royals in the second contest of a three-game series at Angel Stadium.
Los Angeles has won three of five versus Kansas City this year and has captured 15 of the last 19 meetings between the clubs. That includes a three-game sweep the last time these teams met in California on May 8-10, 2009.
Taking the hill for the Royals this evening will be Bruce Chen. who is looking for his second straight victory. Chen, who is 4-2 for the Royals, is coming off a solid performance in which he held the Cardinals to just two runs in five innings. Chen surrendered only two hits, but walked five batters, to go along with five strike outs.
It was the third win in the last five outings for Chen, who is 2-1 with a 4.05 earned run average on the road this season.
In four career appearances against the Angels (two starts) Chen is 0-1 with a mediocre 3.65 earned run average.
As for the Angels, they will turn to Ervin Santana, who has won seven of his last nine starts, including two in a row. The last time the hard-throwing right-hander was on the bump he helped lead the Angels to a 10-3 win over Colorado.
In the victory over the Rockies, Santana tossed 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs -- one earned -- on eight hits, while striking out seven batters.
It was the fourth home win on the year for Santana, who has had trouble at Angel Stadium, posting a 4.82 ERA in eight home starts.
In eight career outings against the Royals, Santana is just 4-3 with a lackluster 4.50 earned run average. However, against Kansas City earlier this season the right-hander grabbed a victory, tossing seven innings, in which he allowed just one run, while striking out six batters.
Last night, Willie Bloomquist singled home the winning run in the 10th inning to lift Kansas City to a 2-1 comeback win over the Angels.
Robinson Tejeda (3-3) earned the win by getting Howie Kendrick to ground out on a sensational diving stop by third baseman Alberto Callaspo with runners at second and third to end the ninth inning. Joakim Soria set down the side in order in the bottom of the 10th to earn his 21st save for the Royals, who have won six of their last eight.
Scot Shields (0-3) yielded the decisive run on two hits and a walk in his lone inning of work for the Halos, who have dropped two out of three.
The Royals played station-to-station baseball to produce the winning run, as Yuniesky Betancourt opened the 10th with a single, moved to second base on a Scott Podsednik sacrifice bunt, advanced to third base on a ground out and came in to score on Bloomquist's base hit to left field.
Halos starter Joe Saunders was removed after a leadoff walk to Billy Butler in the ninth with a 1-0 lead and was replaced by Brian Fuentes, who set down the first two batters he faced.
Bloomquist, serving as a pinch-runner, then stole second base and scored to tie the game on a double to left-center field by Mike Aviles.
Saunders yielded that single run on six hits while walking two and fanning four. Fuentes was charged with his fourth blown save of the season.
Kansas City starter Kyle Davies kept the Angels hitless until Torii Hunter and Hideki Matsui singled with two outs in the fourth. Mike Napoli followed with a base hit to left field to plate Hunter with the game's first run.
Davies allowed a lone run on seven hits over 7 2/3 innings while walking three and striking out three.