Rookie Mitch Farris, Angels bullpen hold Royals in check en route to 5-1 victory

Jaylon Thompson, The Kansas City Star on Sep 2, 2025

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals find themselves in a tight American League wild-card race as the calendar flips to September.

It’s the final month of the 2025 regular season and the Royals have work to do. If the Royals are to return to the postseason, they need to leapfrog both the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers.

They also need to take care of business against the teams further behind in the standings. On Tuesday, the Royals fell short, 5-1, against the Los Angeles Angels at Kauffman Stadium.

The Angels (65-73) strung together four runs in the middle innings. Designated hitter Jo Adell hit a 454-foot homer off Royals starter Michael Lorenzen. It was his 32nd home run as the Angels claimed the lead.

An inning later, Royals reliever John Schreiber allowed consecutive doubles and hurled a wild pitch as Los Angeles extended the lead.

The Royals (70-68) recorded just four hits. They struggled against Angels left-handed starter Mitch Farris, who made his MLB debut.

Farris allowed one run in five innings. Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. did the lone damage on the night. Witt hit a triple and later scored in the third inning. It was one of two highlight plays from Witt in the game — more on that in a second.

The Royals have lost three of four during their homestand. The offense continues to be inconsistent and it’s proved costly. KC finished 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base.

Witt shines with defensive gem

On Tuesday, Witt showed why he has a Gold Glove in his collection.

He robbed Angels leadoff hitter Zach Neto of a base hit with a terrific diving stop in shallow left field in the third inning. Witt raced toward the baseball, gathered himself and threw a strike to first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino.

Witt hurled the baseball at 86.6 mph toward the base. His starting depth was 148 feet and his sprint speed was 17.8 feet per second to the baseball.

The defensive play helped keep the Angels off the scoreboard. Lorenzen retired the next two hitters — via strikeout — as the game remained tied.

Later in the frame, Witt came up with his triple and scored on Pasquantino’s sacrifice fly.

What’s next?

The Royals are back in action Wednesday night. Royals rookie right-hander Ryan Bergert (2-1, 2.67 ERA) will make his sixth start with the Royals. He owns the best earned run average (minimum 10 starts) among MLB rookies. The Angels have not announced a starter for the game.