Costly mistakes tarnish big night from Renfroe 

ANAHEIM -- Mike Trout hit a majestic home run. Hunter Renfroe hit two of them. Matt Thaiss even added his first long ball of the season to give the Angels a late two-run lead.

The four homers matched the Angels’ high for a game this season, and yet, the club raised the bar for what frustrating defeats can look like.

None of the home runs mattered in the end of an 11-8 loss to the Royals on Saturday at Angel Stadium, a defeat that was sealed after the Royals scored five runs in the ninth to take the lead.

The defeat came against the same Royals squad that has a Major League-worst .596 OPS, and is second to last with a .210 team batting average.

“In an 11-8 game, you can point to so many things,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “Things we did, we didn’t do. They did, didn’t do. I did, I didn’t do. Whatever. I’m not worried about how we’re playing, though. The defense has been really good lately. We’ve pitched better, but we didn’t pitch great tonight.

“… We got the ball in our closer's hands with a two-run lead. We’ll take that every night.”

The Royals led through four innings, the Angels went in front in the fifth, each team held the lead in the sixth and the Angels appeared on the way to victory when Thaiss hit a two-run blast in the eighth for an 8-6 lead.

It was the second hit of the game for Thaiss, who was making what is expected to be his only start of the weekend. Chad Wallach was called up Friday when Logan O'Hoppe (shoulder) went on the injured list and shared top billing in his 2023 debut with Shohei Ohtani, hitting a two-run home run while working a shutout from behind the plate. Wallach is expected to start Sunday and Monday as well.

But two hits and two hard-hit outs from Thaiss gave the Angels another thing to savor on an evening that was ultimately one to purge.

“Definitely not the circumstances we wanted, but we’ll go back out there again tomorrow,” Thaiss said after his fifth start at catcher this season. “I think it was a good step for me today at the plate. I put some good swings together and helped us to try and grab a win.”

There was plenty to look back on later. The Angels challenged a call on a pickoff attempt in the sixth inning but lost, then didn't have a challenge later in the inning when they could have used it. The Royals scored three times in the sixth.

Angels pitchers hit the leadoff batter twice, and the infield failed to turn a key 3-6-3 double play in the sixth when first baseman Gio Urshela stumbled back to the bag to take the return throw. The ball ricocheted off his glove and into the Royals' dugout, allowing two runs to score.

But it all imploded in the ninth inning when lefty José Quijada was tagged for five runs in just two-thirds of an inning.

Quijada not only hit Nicky Lopez with a pitch to lead off the Royals' ninth inning, but he also hit MJ Melendez with the bases loaded to give Kansas City the lead for good at 9-8 later in the frame. After not allowing a run in his first eight outings, the left-hander was making his fourth appearance in six days.

“I just don’t think he located as well as he had [been], and he’s pitched a lot too,” Nevin said. “[Carlos] Estévez was not available tonight, but Q, that’s his spot. He’s been great in that spot and he will continue to be great in that spot. Tonight wasn’t his night.”