Matt Shoemaker and Angels lose to Royals 7-5 under protest

Angels 5 Royals 7

Some pitchers, like Tyler Skaggs last night, catch some nice breaks with this Angels team; by “breaks”, I guess I’m talking about runs. Run support. No matter how well Matt Shoemaker pitches, he barely gets any of those fabled runs, and tonight was...well, tonight actually WAS different! WOOHOO!

Matt Shoemaker still lost, though. :(

Kansas City had yet to encounter On Fire Shoemaker, and they wont soon forget him after getting a nice, long look at the recent Kershaw clone. Shoemaker took a perfect game into the fifth inning, where Salvador Perez hit a double to right field that was JUST BARELY out of the reach, and off the glove, of Kole Calhoun. His bid for history was officially over, but he wasn’t too rattled and kept on dealing.

The Angels were dead set on taking care of offensive business for Shoemaker, but the Royals’ Danny Duffy was being quite stingy. The Halos finally got a run on the board in the fifth, the first run scored of the game, when Yunel Escobar hit into no-outs, bases-loaded double play that scored Jett Bandy.

The 1-0 Angels lead would only last until the bottom of that same inning, when Paulo Orlando hit a ground-rule double, scoring a run for the home team. In the sixth, a Jefry Marte double added one on for the Angels, and in the top of the seventh, Escobar got yet another hit on his season, this time driving in Gregorio Petit.

Matt Shoemaker may had lost his perfect game at that point, but we were witnessing something even more rare and historic: Shoey run support!

Then, well...the wackiness happened. Raul Mondesi was up in the bottom of the seventh, and he attempted a bunt. Sounds simple enough. Then, it was grabbed by Matt Shoemaker and in trying to throw out Mondesi at first, the throw goes awry. Two runs scored on that play, which tied the game 3-3. Ouch. Then, of course, minutes later Jarrod Dyson hit a go-ahead triple and the Royals had a 4-3 lead.

That would be the end of Matt Shoemaker’s night, but the hits weren’t done. J.C. Ramirez gave up a sac fly to Alcides Escobar, scoring Jarrod Dyson and clearing off the last of Shoemaker’s runs for a topsy turvy frame.

That’s the shortened version of events, but if you watched live, they talked and reviewed Shoemaker’s errant throw to first, that set off all the scoring, and eventually Mike Scioscia declared they are playing tonight’s game under protest. Can’t win ‘em all, Scioscia. (OR CAN HE?!)

Shoemaker was out, there were only a couple more innings, plus another Mondesi hit that caused another run, and the good guys found themselves down 7-3. They would still be able to walk away with the series win, but the series sweep odds were getting dire.

The Angels had one more run in them, though.

The ninth showed the Royals getting a little asleep at the wheel, and this happened: Johnny Giavotella single and advanced to second-Yunel Escobar walked-Mike Trout walked...bases loaded, ninth inning, one out.

They capitalized, but didn’t capitalize enough. Albert Pujols walked in a run, and then our hot-hittin’ SS Andrelton Simmons hit a clutch RBI single. 7-5 Royals now, and the gap was closing. Unfortunately, that was the entirety of their last gasp, and the game ended on a Jett Bandy strikeout.

Matt Shoemaker finally got some runs, but just in time for his night to go south. That’s how they roll, sometimes. The Angels had an OK road trip, and a great post-All Star break, if you just block out that Houston series. Let’s do that. 1.......2............3 BLOCKED!