Kansas City was looking for a little home-cooking on Friday evening, though they were on the road visiting the Los Angeles Angels. With rookie Mike Moustakas making his major league debut back in his native Southern California, the Royals played efficient baseball en route to a 4-2 victory.
Jeff Francis was the starter for Kansas City and looked solid on the mound, cruising throw the first five innings as Francis used effective "junk" to quiet the Halos bats. Francis ran into some trouble in the sixth inning as the tall Canadian allowed five hits and tossed a wild pitch, which allowed Los Angeles to score twice in the inning. It could have been three runs had Alex Gordon not gunned down Bobby Abreu at the plate, who tried to score on a Erick Aybar single.
For the game, Francis went 6.1 innings, giving up two runs and scattering eight hits. He struck out three and walked one as he earned the victory and moved to 3-6 in his first season with Kansas City.
Melky Cabrera got the Royals out to a quick lead in the first inning when he belted his ninth home run of the season to deep right field off Angels starter Ervin Santana, who the Royals were facing for the third time this season.
Billy Butler homered as well, his sixth of the year, a solo shot to center in the fourth as Kansas City took a 2-0 lead at the time.
As for Moustakas, he went 1-for-3 with a walk and run scored is his debut, singling and coming around to score in the sixth inning as the Royals scored two more to take a 4-0 lead. After Butler walked and Moustakas singled, Chris Getz singled with one out to plate Butler. Alcides Escobar, who was 2-for-4 on the night, then doubled on a line drive to right field to score Moustakas.
Greg Holland came on in relief of Francis and retired all five batters faced, before Joakim Soria came on to pick up his second save in as many days as Kansas City improves to 28-36. For Soria it was his ninth save. Santana was charged with the loss, falling to 3-6 as the Angels now sit at 30-35. Friday's boxscore can be viewed here.
The Royals look for three wins in a row on Saturday evening as Felipe Paulino (0-0 0.56 ERA) faces Joel Pineiro (2-3 3.76). Gametime is 8:05 CST.