Moustakas Tie-Breaking Eighth Inning Homer Sinks Angels, 3-2

KANSAS CITY (AP)  — Mike Moustakas hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning Saturday night, lifting the Kansas City Royals over the Los Angeles Angels 3-2.

Moustakas connected off Jose Alvarez (0-1) for his fifth home run this season.

Los Angeles had tied the score in the seventh when Cameron Maybin led off with a single against Mike Minor, Martin Maldonado walked with one out and Ben Revere hit a two-out single against Joakim Soria (1-0), who threw 38 pitches over 1 2/3 innings while striking out four.

Royals starter Nathan Karns allowed Albert Pujols' RBI grounder in the first and four hits over six innings. Karns escaped a bases-loaded jam when Andrelton Simmons lined out to Alex Gordon on the left-field warning track on his final pitch.

Kansas City starters Jason Vargas, Danny Duffy and Karns have allowed two runs over 20 2/3 innings for a 0.87 ERA.

Kelvin Herrera pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.

Eric Hosmer hit an RBI single in a 33-pitch bottom of the first and Brandon Moss homered in the fourth against Matt Shoemaker, who gave up two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings while striking out seven.

BACK IN THE FIELD

Pujols played first base for the first time since Aug. 10. With the Angels playing 37 games in 38 days, Angels manager Mike Scioscia used Mike Trout as the DH. "We've got a little deeper bench this year," Scioscia said. "Any time we get a chance to get Mike at DH, we're going to take advantage of it."

RING TIME

Royals RHP Jason Hammel, LHP Travis Wood and OF Jorge Soler, who all played for the Cubs last year, will be in Chicago on Monday — when the Royals are off — for a World Series ring ceremony at Wrigley Field. When Hammel was told the ring had a lot of diamonds, he replied, "There's a lot of years of pain."

TRAINER'S ROOM

Angels: RHP Garrett Richards (lack of biceps strength) had a MRI of his spine, which ruled out a cervical disk or nerve issue. Richards went on the DL after one start.

Royals: Soler (oblique strain) continues taking batting practice and shagging balls in the outfield.

UP NEXT

Angels: LHP Tyler Skaggs, slated to start Sunday's series finale, pitched seven scoreless innings on July 26 last year in his only career start against the Royals.

Royals: RHP Ian Kennedy is 0-4 with a 6.55 ERA in five appearances against the Angels.

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