For the second straight night the Royals committed costly errors in the ninth inning to blow the lead and lose. Last night they let a 3-1-advantage slip away to lose to the Angels 5-3 at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals got runs in the first, second and eighth innings to get the lead—Dee Brown’s homer in the second was their only credited RBI. In the ninth, reliever Jaime Cerda gave up singles to Robb Quinlan and Tim Salmon, who was replaced on the bases by Alfredo Amezaga. They advanced to second and third when Cerda threw a wild pitch. After walking David Eckstein, Cerda gave up a base hit to Chone Figgins to make it 3-2. Scott Sullivan replaced Cerda and threw a wild pitch to score Amezaga. With the score tied, Ruben Gotay fielded a grounder Vladimir Guerrero and threw the ball away, allowing two more runs to score to make it 5-3. The Royals went down in order in the bottom of the ninth to end the game. Cerda was charged with the loss and Brian Anderson got the no decision. Anderson allowed one run off seven hits over seven innings. Kansas City has lost four in a row.
