Former Royal Johnny Giavotella leads Angels to 9-4 win over KC

The baseball trampolined off Johnny Giavotella's bat at 103 mph, a missile into the darkened night sky here at Angel Stadium, a flare from an expatriate of the Royals’ process.

In the moments after contact, Giavotella took off sprinting for first base anyway, rounding the bag as the baseball landed in the bullpen beyond the chain-link left-field fence. On the mound, Edinson Volquez whipped his head around toward right field. As Giavotella’s legs churned into a stride, he pumped his fist and let out a primal yell. The sound served as the death knell in the Royals’ 9-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Tuesday night.

The Royals fell for the second straight night, losing a game with their opening day starter on the mound, squandering a two-run lead after the top of the second and a 4-3 advantage after the fourth. The night collapsed in the bottom of the fifth, when the Royals were felled by the bat of Giavotella and the glove of the man who took his place.

“I didn’t perform as well as I could have when I was in Kansas City,” Giavotella said after the game. “I know that I underperformed with the opportunity that I had. So for me to have a good night like this kind of proved to them, as well as myself, that I’m capable of playing this game at the highest level.”

Giavotella, 28, finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs and three runs scored. He crushed a three-run homer off Volquez in the fifth, the biggest shot in a decisive five-run blitz. The inning was still alive, in part, because second baseman Omar Infante could not snare a bouncing grounder with his backhand.

With runners at first and second and one out in the fifth — and the Royals still leading 4-3 — Los Angeles’ C.J. Cron hit a sharp grounder to the right of second base. The ball was struck sharply. The play would have been difficult. But Royals manager Ned Yost viewed it as a play that Infante could, and perhaps should, have made.

“Of course,” Yost said. “He was there. He had two plays to the backhand today that he couldn’t handle … it’s a fast infield. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. But he can make that play.”

Moments later, the Angels’ Carlos Perez gave the Angels a 5-4 lead with a two-run single to center. Giavotella broke it open by turning around an 0-1 curveball from Volquez.

“I threw a first-pitch curve, and then I doubled up,” Volquez said. “And it was right down the middle. He put a good swing on the ball.”

The Royals were one ground ball from escaping the fifth inning with a possible inning-ending double play. Instead, they fell to 12-8 after losing the first two games of a six-game West Coast trip.

Giavotella, of course, was once a piece in the Royals’ homegrown youth movement, a possible answer for a well-worn void at second base. These days, he is part of a platoon here in Los Angeles, splitting time with Cliff Pennington. His exit from Kansas City was expedited when the club signed Infante to a four-year deal before the 2014 season.

On Tuesday, Giavotella had entered the night batting .136 (6 for 44) in 14 games. He crafted a breakout night while finding a measure of revenge.

“He’s always played with a lot of energy,” Yost said. “He’s making strides. You can tell he’s been working really, really hard on his defense.”

Volquez absorbed the bulk of the damage, allowing eight runs and 12 hits in five innings pitch. He dropped to 3-1 with a 3.64 ERA after winning three of his first four decisions. The implosion nullified a strong start from the Royals’ offense, which plated four runs in the opening four innings. Volquez chalked his night up to a spate of poor luck.

“That was my job, to keep the ball on the ground,” Volquez said. “And I got a lot of ground balls. So, unlucky today. But [it’s] one of those days in baseball, where you have your best stuff going, and you give up a lot of singles.”

Mike Moustakas cranked his seventh homer off Angels starter Jered Weaver. Eric Hosmer extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching a career high. Infante and Dyson pieced together back-to-back RBI doubles in the fourth as the Royals took a 4-3 lead.

But the Royals could never land a knock-out punch on Weaver, a veteran who traffics in deception, guile and an 84 mph fastball.

“I feel like he throws so slow, and it just takes forever to get there,” center fielder Lorenzo Cain said. “Sometimes, you’re a little impatient.

Moustakas had put the Royals ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning, cracking a solo homer to center field. He saw an 84 mph fastball from Weaver, who traffics in deception and guile. He powered it to deep center, just beyond the outstretched glove of center fielder Mike Trout, who climbed the short wall in center field.

A year ago, Moustakas began his season as a contact-hitting machine, reconfiguring his swing and taking off in the early weeks of April. The power would come later. He didn’t hit his seventh homer until June 24th. He clubbed 15 of his 22 homers after the All-Star break. On Tuesday, Moustakas recorded his seventh homer in the Royals’ 20th game of the season.

The Royals tacked on another run in the top of the second. The Angels’ roared back with an opportunistic rally in the bottom half of the inning. After an infield single from Andrelton Simmons loaded the bases, the Angels scored a run on a grounder to first base and a well-placed two-run single from Trout.

The Royals would take the lead once more in the top of the fourth. The advantage disappeared in the fifth.

“One of those nights,” Volquez said.

“They just were finding holes,” Yost said. “They weren’t scorching the ball. But they kept finding holes until that fifth inning.”

Angels 9, Royals 4

E—A.Escobar (4). LOB—Kansas City 6, Los Angeles 9. 2B—A.Gordon (3), S.Perez 2 (6), Infante (7), J.Dyson 2 (2), Giavotella (1). HR—Moustakas (7), off Weaver; Giavotella (1), off Volquez. RBIs—Moustakas (11), Infante (3), J.Dyson 2 (3), Ortega (2), Trout 2 (11), C.Perez 2 (4), Giavotella 3 (4). CS—Cron (1). S—C.Perez.

Runners left in scoring position—Kansas City 5 (A.Escobar 2, K.Morales, Moustakas, J.Dyson); Los Angeles 3 (A.Simmons 2, Trout). RISP—Kansas City 3 for 11; Los Angeles 6 for 11.

Runners moved up—A.Escobar, Infante, Ortega. GIDP—A.Escobar, Hosmer, K.Morales.

DP—Los Angeles 3 (Giavotella, A.Simmons, Cron), (Giavotella, A.Simmons, Cron), (A.Simmons, Pennington, Cron).

Umpires—Home, Mike Everitt; First, Tim Timmons; Second, Toby Basner; Third, Jordan Baker.

T—3:02. A—34,428 (45,493).

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 12:23 AM with the headline "Former Royal Johnny Giavotella leads Angels to 9-4 win over KC."