Cole Ragans struck out 10 batters over five innings as the Kansas City Royals earned a 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Ragans (3-3), making his second start since missing 3 1/2 months with a left rotator cuff strain, picked up his first win since May 5. He allowed two runs on three hits and one walk, leaving after throwing 72 pitches, 44 for strikes.
Maikel Garcia went 3-for-4 with two doubles, three runs, a walk and an RBI for Kansas City (79-78). It was the second time in his career that Garcia had at least three hits and three runs in a game.
Adam Frazier and Bobby Witt Jr. each doubled, singled and had two RBIs and Salvador Perez went 2-for-3 with an RBI single, moving past into Hal McRae into second place on the Royals’ all-time RBI list.
Bryce Teodosio hit his first major league home run and Taylor Ward also homered for Los Angeles (70-87), which lost for the 10th time in 11 games. Sam Aldegher (0-1) allowed three runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He fanned three and walked two.
Kansas City, which learned just before the first pitch that it had officially been eliminated from postseason contention when the Cleveland Guardians defeated the Detroit Tigers, took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Garcia led off the game with a double, advanced to third on a single by Witt and scored on a wild pitch. One out later, Perez lined a single to center to make it 2-0 with his 1,013th career RBI to top McRae in Royals history. Hall of Famer George Brett holds the team record with 1,596 RBIs.
The Royals extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Garcia led off with a hustle double to shallow center and scored one out later on a double by Vinnie Pasquantino.
Los Angeles cut the deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth on a two-run homer into the left field bullpen by Teodosio, driving in Christian Moore, who had singled.
Kansas City made it 5-2 in the seventh on a two-run double into the gap in right-center by Frazier. The Royals broke the game open with three more runs in the eighth. After Garcia delivered an RBI single, Witt hit a two-run double into the left field corner.
Ward led off the bottom of the ninth with his 35th homer, off reliever Sam Long, and Jo Adell singled and later scored on a passed ball.
