The Kansas City Royals lost a tough one to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim yesterday. Not only did they wind up losing the game 5-3, but they may have lost their centerfielder, David DeJesus, as he left the game in the top of the 5th inning with a foot injury. Joey Gathright would later enter the game as DeJesus’ replacement.

The scoring started in the top of the 3rd inning, when David DeJesus singled in back-stop John Buck. The Angels would answer right back in the bottom half of that inning when Garret Anderson would double with the bases loaded, driving in all 3 runs. The Royals would score again in the 4th inning when Jose Guillen doubled in Billy Butler, but the Angels’ 2 runs in the bottom of the 5th proved to be all that the Royals could handle.

“The walk was probably the biggest at-bat because it brought Anderson to the plate. We were one pitch away from getting out of it,” catcher John Buck said. “We were trying to go with a breaking ball in the dirt to Anderson, but Brett just hung it. You can’t hang many pitches to Anderson because he’s a pretty good hitter.”

Each starting pitcher was solid tonight. Veteran Brett Tomko went 7 innings for the Royals, giving up 5 runs but striking out 3.

“I just threw a hanging changeup to Anderson and that was it,” Tomko said. “I threw a curveball in the dirt that he swung at and missed and I tried to do the same thing. I tried to bounce it and it popped out of my hand a little bit. It was just one of those things. He could’ve popped it up and I’d feel great about it. But he didn’t. He hit it off the wall.”

Jon Garland took the hill for the Angels, he went 6 1/3 innings allowing just 2 runs on 7 hits.

“I thought he had a better breaking ball that he mixed in and kept guys off balance,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of Garland. “He didn’t have great command of his changeup, which is a big pitch for him. Where he struggled is that he got behind guys and they started to peck away at him.”

Francisco Rodriguez nailed down a 4 out save, for his 6th save of the year. This is great news for owners of Rodriguez in fantasy baseball, as there were health concerns around Rodriguez earlier this season when he wasn’t throwing nearly as hard as he used to.

“Four out of five for Frankie—he got the job done,” Scioscia said. “It’s not always going to be clean, but he gets the job done.”