Four solo homers by the Royals help KC salvage win vs. Angels: series takeaways

Jaylon Thompson, The Kansas City Star on Sep 4, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals hold all the cards in their pursuit of a second straight playoff appearance. This month, they can make an emphatic statement down the stretch.

Starting Friday, the Royals have a massive home series against Seattle at hand. The Mariners sit two games ahead of the Royals for the third and final American League Wild Card spot.

The Royals hold the tiebreaker over another team in pursuit, the Texas Rangers. They would need to simply leapfrog or tie the Rangers to finish ahead of them in the final tally.

Things line up well on both fronts. However, the Royals still need to take care of business if they are going to realize any of their postseason dreams.

And that starts with beating teams that rank lower than them in the Major League Baseball standings. On Thursday, the Royals salvaged the series finale against the Los Angeles Angels at Kauffman Stadium: Bobby Witt Jr. hit a game-winning solo homer in a 4-3 KC victory.

Witt made up for his defensive mistake in Wednesday’s game by belting his 21st homer of the year off Angels reliever and former Kansas Jayhawk Ryan Zeferjahn in the eighth inning.

The win snapped the Royals’ three-game losing streak and moved them a half-game closer in the AL standings.

The Royals also continued a run of success in series finales. Witt’s homer was one of four Thursday night — all solo shots — as the long ball fueled the Kansas City offense.

Noah Cameron pitches uneven start

Royals left-handed starter Noah Cameron didn’t have his best command on Thursday against the Angels.

The Angels made him work throughout the game. In the first inning, Cameron retired his first two batters before Luis Rengifo tagged him with a three-run homer.

At times, Cameron lost his command. He issued five walks but was bailed out by some key double plays. The Royals’ defense erased a potential rally in the fourth inning after Cameron surrendered a double to Rengifo and walked first baseman Oswald Peraza.

With two runners aboard, Cameron retired catcher Logan O’Hoppe to extinguish the threat: O’Hoppe grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

Cameron threw 54 of his 93 pitches for strikes. He mixed in all five of his pitches, but the Angels showed patience at the plate.

L.A. slugger Jo Adell worked a seven-pitch walk to set up Rengifo’s home run. Later, in the third inning, major-league superstar Mike Trout — who returned after missing two games — drew a six-pitch walk.

And yet, Cameron kept the Royals in the game. He finished with four scoreless innings before the KC bullpen took over in the sixth.

Homers reheat Royals’ cold offense

The Royals’ offense has hit another rough patch. And inconsistent run production is a recurring theme this season.

The Royals logged five hits against the Angels on Thursday. Four were solo homers — from Witt, Adam Frazier, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez.

Frazier recorded his 1,000th career hit in style. He belted a solo homer off Angels starter Kyle Hendricks in the second inning.

Hendricks left an 84.9 mph sinker over the plate and Frazier didn’t miss it. He drove the baseball into the right-field bullpen to put the Royals on the scoreboard.

Later, Vinnie Pasquantino hit his 29th home run of the season. And Perez’s blast tied the game in the seventh.

Perez is now just three homers shy of 300 for his illustrious career. Only seven primary catchers have eclipsed 300 or more homers in MLB history.

Witt finished Thursday’s series finale with the biggest hit of the night as the Royals improved to 71-69.

What’s next: The Royals continue their homestand against the Minnesota Twins on Friday evening. Right-hander Michael Wacha will start for KC on Friday. He allowed four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings in his last start at home.

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