Ben Zobrist slides across home plate with the running run on Sunday night (photo/MLB)
You don’t need to be an expert in sabermetrics to understand the value of Royals’ DH Kendrys Morales. All you need are two simple stats to back up the claim that Morales may be the best DH in the American League. Morales leads the majors with 42 RBI and a .332 average with two outs.
His hit with two outs in the bottom of the tenth pushed the Royals past the Angels 4-3 and their kept their lead to 12 games in the Central Division. A hard fought win against a pesky Los Angeles team that dropped three out of four to the defending American League Champions.
Ben Zobrist and Eric Hosmer spotted Yordano Ventura a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Ventura retired seven in a row to start the game, before a double and passed ball put a runner on third with one out in the third. Ventura got a strike out and ground out to keep the Angels off the board. Ventura was cruising along until the sixth, when he gave up a triple Kole Calhoun, a wild pitch and home run to David Murphy to make it a 2-2 game.
In the eighth inning, Calhoun homered off Wade Davis to leadoff the inning to put L.A. up 3-2. Davis, who gave up 15 homers when he started for the Royals in 2013, didn’t allow a home run during the regular season in 2014 and had gone 45 appearances this season before giving up a long ball. Now, Davis has been taken deep twice in his last four games.
With closer Huston Street looking for a split in the series, the Royals tied the game as Eric Hosmer drew a lead off walk and advanced to second on a swing bunt. Mike Moustakas was intentionally walked and backup catcher Drew Butera forced a walk to load the bases for Alex Rios, who hit a sac fly scoring Hosmer to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.
In the tenth, Zobrist single and advanced to second on another Hosmer walk allowed by Trevor Gott, who then gave up the two out single to Morales to score Zobrist.
