Royals at Angels
The defending American League champion Kansas City Royals appear to have no weaknesses and go for a three-game sweep of Los Angeles at Angel Stadium on Sunday. Kansas City improved to 5-0 for the first time since 2003 with a 6-4 victory over Los Angeles on Saturday, and while it is no surprise its pitching staff — specially the bullpen — is performing well, a newfound power surge and a tight defense complete the Royals' all-around excellence.
Kansas City hit another pair of home runs Saturday to raise its season total to eight after recording a major league-low 95 last season and has not committed an error in its first five games. The Royals' bullpen hasn't yielded a run in 13 innings while permitting only five hits and two walks while striking out 15. Los Angeles, meanwhile, fell to 2-3 and while Mike Trout, the 2014 AL MVP, is off to a 7-for-18 start, Albert Pujols is 2-for-19. Los Angeles' C.J. Wilson threw eight shutout innings in his season debut and opposes Yordano Ventura, who left his first start because of a thumb cramp.
TV: 3:35 p.m. ET, FSN Kansas City, FSN West (Los Angeles)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Royals RH Yordano Ventura (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Angels LH C.J. Wilson (1-0, 0.00)
When Ventura was last seen at Angel Stadium, he was allowing one run in seven innings of Kansas City's 4-1 victory in 11 innings over Los Angeles in Game 2 of their best-of-5 AL Division Series that the Royals swept. The 23-year-old Dominican yielded one run and four hits in six innings before leaving Tuesday's 10-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. "He’ll just hydrate a lot more next time out. It’s as simple as that, I believe,” manager Ned Yost told reporters.
Wilson yielded two hits and one walk while striking out two in Tuesday's 2-0 victory at Seattle in what manager Mike Scioscia termed a masterpiece. "That was great to see,'' Scioscia told reporters. "We haven't seen that kind of stuff since probably midseason last year. I think it points to the fact that he's healthy. You can't really command the ball better than C.J. did." Wilson is 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in 17 appearances (seven starts) against the Royals, but has struggled against former teammate Kendrys Morales (10-for-28, homer) and Alex Rios (8-for-21, two homers, five RBIs).
WALK-OFFS
1. Kansas City, Detroit and Atlanta are the only undefeated teams in baseball.
2. The Royals needed 20 games to reach eight home runs last season.
3. Los Angeles RHP Garrett Richards (13-4, 2.61 ERA in 2014 before suffering a season-ending knee injury Aug. 20) is expected to make one more rehab start with Triple-A Salt Lake City on Tuesday before joining the Angels.