The Los Angeles Angels gave up a chance to earn a victory against the American League's worst team, the Kansas City Royals, in their series opener.
The Los Angeles Angels squandered a great opportunity to build some momentum against one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball.
The Angels dropped its series opener against the Kansas City Royals 6-3 on Friday after a tough start from left-hander Yusei Kikuchi. Kikuchi allowed five runs, all in the fourth inning, on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings to earn his third loss of the season.
Kikuchi looked great his last time out and had been tinkering with his mechanics for several days, but he didn’t have an answer for the Royals his second time through the batting order. Teams are slashing .383/.426/.511 (.937 OPS) when they face Kikuchi a second time, which is worse than the already-bad .849 OPS the first time through the lineup.
Royals lefty Noah Cameron outpitched him, pitching into the seventh inning (6.1 IP) and allowing three runs on eight hits and three walks with six punchouts. The Angels scored all of its runs during Cameron’s final inning of work, but it wasn’t enough to spark a comeback.
Los Angeles has lost five of its last six games and currently sit in third place of the American League West with a 12-15 record.
The Halos will rely on 22-year-old rookie right-hander Walbert Urena to even up the series against the worst team in the AL, while the Royals will send its ace lefty Cole Ragans to the bump.
Urena is 0-2 with a 2.35 ERA and 1.83 WHIP through three appearances, with his last one being his first career start. He pitched great in that outing, finishing six innings and allowing just two runs on four hits and two walks while fanning eight San Diego Padres hitters. Urena was touching triple digits with a 92 miles-per-hour changeup, reminiscent of Chicago Cubs right-hander Edward Cabrera.
Ragans is one of the best left-handers in the sport when he’s right, and he hasn’t been to begin his 2026 campaign. He was an All-Star in 2024 and finished fourth in AL Cy Young voting that season, but he was plagued by two significant injuries in 2025, causing him to make just 13 starts.
Through five starts this season, Ragans is 0-4 with a 6.00 ERA and 1.67 WHIP. He’s had two terrific starts in which he allowed no earned runs in six innings against the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, but his last time out he surrendered seven runs on four hits and eight (!) walks with six strikeouts against the New York Yankees.
The Angels cannot wait until the late innings to scratch some runs across and can’t squander the rest of the series.
First pitch is at 4:10 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.