KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ That new-age opener concept might have been a wise choice on the Angels' part because their would-be starter Jaime Barria sure didn't hang around very long once the Royals got a look at him.
The Royals set a new season high for hits, broke the game open with a six-run inning and successfully leaned on their bullpen for 5 1/3 innings of relief on their way to a 9-4 win on a chilly night in front of an announced 18,755 at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday night. The win evened the three-game set at a game apiece with the finale to come on Sunday afternoon.
The Royals' Hunter Dozier looked like a one-man wrecking crew as he raised his season batting average to .350 with the first four-hit game of his career. He also logged a career-high four RBIs and hit two triples. Adalberto Mondesi had a three-hit day, while Alex Gordon, Ryan O'Hearn and Mondesi scored two runs each. Third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez collected a hit and two RBIs in his major-league debut.
The Royals went 6 for 13 with runners in scoring position.
They did the majority of their damage in the third inning, when they got the six runs. The first six batters of the inning reached base safely, and five scored. Those five runs scored before the Royals made an out in the inning. They collected eight hits in the third and tied their highest-scoring inning of the season, having posted a pair of six-run innings earlier in the season.
Tied 1-1 in the third inning Mondesi and Gordon started things off with back-to-back singles to set the table for Dozier. Dozier, who returned to the lineup as the designated hitter on Friday night after sitting out the final two games of the road trip due to back spasms, lined a two-run triple into the right-field corner _ the club's 13th triple in 27 games.
First baseman O'Hearn, who'd gone 4 for 30 (.133) on the road trip, swatted an RBI single (his second hit of the night) to score Dozier. The next batter, Jorge Soler, hit a check-swing double on a ball that traveled 71 feet through a shifted infield.
With runners on second and third, Gutierrez dropped a two-run single softly into left field to record his first major league hit and RBI on the same play. Gutierrez's single gave the Royals a 6-1 lead and an out still hadn't been made in the inning.
With two outs, Mondesi added an RBI single. That hit chased Barria from the game after 1 2/3 innings and made Mondesi the first Royal with two hits in an inning since Ryan Goins on May 30, 2018, in the second inning against the Minnesota Twins.
Barria, who did not pitch the first inning in favor of "opener" Cam Bedrosian, gave up seven runs on 10 hits and one walk in the 1 2/3 innings.
Royals starter Jorge Lopez couldn't make it through four innings despite the lead his teammates provided. Lopez allowed four runs on six hits and three walks and one hit batter in 3 2/3 innings. He finished the night having thrown 77 pitches and just 37 strikes.
After recording a strikeout to end the third inning, Lopez had a discussion with home-plate umpire Jerry Layne as Lopez walked towards the dugout. Layne had what seemed a tight strike zone throughout the night.
The Angels scored three runs in the top of the fourth to chase Lopez from the game and get into the Royals' bullpen.
The Royals' lead remained 7-4 until Dozier hit his second two-run triple of the night in the fifth inning. Dozier had just four triples all last season in 102 games with the Royals, and he hit two in the first five innings on Saturday night. He'd also set a new career high with four RBIs in the game.
