The Los Angeles Angels were two outs away from shutting out the Kansas City Royals for a series win on Saturday. Instead, Royals fans were treated to a thrilling walk-off 3-2 win after the Angels bullpen served up back-to-back home runs and wasted an excellent outing from Zack Greinke.
Kendrys Morales led off the top of the fifth inning with his 20th home run of the year to break the scoreless tie. Torii Hunter provided a big insurance run in the eighth inning with an RBI single to drive in Vernon Wells. That appeared to be all the run support that Greinke would need. Unfortunately, the bullpen would falter once again -- but this time, the most reliable arm in the bullpen would give up the big hits.
Greinke held the Royals to just five hits -- all singles -- and two walks in 8.1 innings of work. He gave up a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth and was lifted for Ernesto Frieri, who served up a game-tying home run to Billy Butler on the very first pitch he threw.
Salvador Perez was the next batter up. This time, Frieri needed three pitches to serve up the game-winning walk-off home run. Frieri took the loss; his first of the season.
The Halos will try to bounce back in the rubber game on Sunday.
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