KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - An 11th inning single from Erick Aybar powered the Los Angeles Angels to a 2-1 road win over the cellar-dwelling Kansas City Royals on Saturday.
Aybar drove in Torii Hunter from second base with his third hit of the game to end a classic pitchers' duel and push the American League West-leading Angels (80-54) four and a half games clear of the Texas Rangers.
Kansas City, mired at the bottom of the AL Central division with a 51-84 record, dropped to 23 games behind the Detroit Tigers.
Kevin Jepsen (5-3), who pitched the 10th inning, collected the win in relief of Angels starter John Lackey, who had held the Royals to a first-inning run and six hits in nine innings. He retired 17 consecutive batters at one point.
"They were pretty aggressive against me," Lackey told reporters.
"I was getting ahead with my fastball, locating my fastball really well, and I kind of rode it for three or four innings."
Angels manager Mike Scioscia praised both his pitcher and Royals starter Zack Greinke.
"We're not going to beat a guy like Greinke unless you're pitching with them," Scioscia said. "We were able to do that and then chipped away for a run, and the bullpen did a good job."
Brian Fuentes earned the save, his 39th, by pitching the 11th inning for Los Angeles.
Yasuhiko Yabuta (0-1) gave up the winning hit to Aybar and took the loss.
Greinke shut out the Angels until the eighth inning when Hunter deadlocked the score with a two-out single. He struck out eight and walked two while giving up eight hits over eight innings.
"Their team's good, they find a way to win," said Greinke, who lowered his American League-leading earned run average to 2.22. "If some balls fell and we scored more, they'd have found a way to win probably. They've just got a really good team."
Kansas City's run came on Billy Butler's single in the first.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by John O'Brien; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
