Angels turn power on against Royals in 8-6 win
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The Angels got their first look Wednesday at the lineup they’re likely to use during the regular season and they certainly liked what they saw, with Torii Hunter, Hideki Matsui and Mike Napoli homering to account for most of the Angels’ scoring in an 8-6 Cactus League rout of the Kansas City Royals at Tempe Diablo Stadium.
Hunter got the scoring started with a two-out first-inning home run, his first of the spring, and made it 3-0 in the third with a mammoth two-run shot that traveled an estimated 420 feet. Matsui hit his first home run as an Angel with two teammates aboard in the fifth to make it 6-0. Then, after the Royals got on the board with a sixth-inning run off reliever Fernando Rodney, Mike Napoli answered with a 400-foot-plus homer in the bottom of the inning.
The Royals made it close with four runs in the seventh off Rodney and minor leaguer Barret Browning and another in the eighth off Kevin Jepsen. For Jepsen, it was the first run he’s allowed this sping. But Bradley Coon got it back in the bottom of the inning, giving the Angels a little more breathing run with an RBI triple.
For Hunter, who also walked and scored three times, the two-hit game was his fourth in a row. Hunter has hit .727 with six runs scored and five runs driven in during that span and is batting a team-best .400 for the spring.
Matsui also had two hits and a walk Wednesday. But he also hit a foul ball in the sixth inning that bounced off the clubhouse roof and onto owner Arte Moreno’s car, breaking the windshield.
On the mound Joel Pineiro looked sharp, scattering five hits through five shutout innings.
-- Kevin Baxter reporting from Tempe, Ariz.