Royals at Angels
The Los Angeles Angels are happy to be playing anyone outside the American League West, and since it's the Kansas City Royals, all the better. Los Angeles is 5-14 in its division and 16-9 against everyone else as it hosts struggling Kansas City on Saturday for the middle contest of their three-game series.
The Angels kicked off their nine-game homestand with a 5-2 victory on Friday as Kole Calhoun returned from the paternity list after his wife gave birth to their second child and provided an RBI double. Superstar Mike Trout continued to feast on Kansas City pitching by going 2-for-3 with a walk, run scored and stolen base to increase his career average against the club to .345 - his highest versus any team. The Royals (15-30), who are an AL-worst 5-15 on the road, have lost five of their last six games and are riding a nine-series winless streak (0-8-1). Los Angeles' Griffin Canning makes his fourth career start on Saturday opposite Jakob Junis, who has allowed nine runs over 9 2/3 innings in his last two starts.
TV: 10:07 p.m. ET, Fox Sports 1, FS Kansas City, FS West (Los Angeles)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Royals RH Jakob Junis (3-4, 5.77 ERA) vs. Angels RH Griffin Canning (1-1, 5.65)
Junis allowed five runs - four earned - and three hits with a career-high five walks in 4 1/3 innings of a 6-1 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday. The 26-year-old native of Illinois kept the ball in the park in his last turn after yielding eight home runs over 44 frames in his first eight starts of the season. Trout and Albert Pujols both have gone deep in a combined nine at-bats versus Junis, who is 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA in two career starts versus the Angels.
Canning permitted four runs, five hits (three homers) and four walks in 4 2/3 innings of a 5-1 loss at Baltimore on Sunday. The 23-year-old Californian had allowed five runs and eight hits in his first two starts - a victory at Detroit and a no-decision versus Toronto. Canning, who was selected in the second round of the 2017 draft, has registered 19 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings while limiting opponents to a .232 batting average.
WALK-OFFS
1. Kansas City was hitless in 23 straight at-bats with runners in scoring position before 1B Ryan O'Hearn delivered a two-run single on Friday.
2. Pujols moved into 20th place on the all-time hits list with 3,116, passing Alex Rodriguez (3,115) after going 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run in the series opener.
3. Royals DH Adalberto Mondesi leads baseball with 17 stolen bases after recording two on Friday, adding to Kansas City's major league-high total to 47 - 14 more than second-place Texas and the Chicago White Sox.