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KC@LAA;: Royals turn five double plays against Angels

ANAHEIM -- An angel in the infield.

That was Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar who started five double plays on Sunday to help right-hander Vin Mazzaro defeat the Angels, 9-0, in front of 39,114 sun-kissed fans at Angel Stadium. Mazzaro pitched seven shutout innings, giving up five hits.

It was the perfect mesh of a sinker-ball pitcher, Mazzaro, getting the ground balls he needed to escape peril, and the shortstop who could handle them.

The Royals' victory gave them the series, two games to one, and they dominated the Angels in their 10-game season series, 7-3.

"The defense was spectacular today," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "It's as good a defensive game as you'll ever hope to see. To his credit, Mazzaro threw strikes when he needed to and let the defense bail him out."

Mazzaro was continually becalmed by the defensive wizardry of Escobar behind him. In five of the first six innings, Mazzaro let the leadoff batter get on base (two singles and three walks). In each of those five innings, Escobar started a double play to dampen the Angels' ardor.

There were so many double plays that Escobar lost track.

"Five double plays?" Escobar said, looking surprised. "Wow, that's nice. I counted four."

Those were the four that he started on ground balls. But there also was one that began with him spearing a line drive and stepping on second base, an unassisted double play.

It was the kind of performance the Royals have come to expect from Escobar.

"Unbelievable," Mazzaro said. "He's got a 'sick' glove and a 'sick' arm. He made some tough plays out there and made them look easy."

Mazzaro also made things look pretty easy at an opportune time. Victim of a 14-run battering in relief by Cleveland that got him shipped back to the Minors, he's trying to keep a rotation job. That might not be easy with starters Bruce Chen and Kyle Davies about ready to leave the disabled list.

"It's not a cut-and-dried decision, no matter how you look at it," Yost said. "This is the Mazzaro that we saw last year that we wanted to trade for."

While Escobar arrived from Milwaukee in the Zack Greinke deal, Mazzaro was acquired from Oakland for David DeJesus. Different deals, but they had joint success on Sunday.

Mazzaro left after 102 pitches and getting out of a bases-loaded situation in the seventh. Reliever Blake Wood threw two innings to close out the Royals' fourth shutout success.

In his first Royals victory, Mazzaro had no strikeouts and issued five walks.

"The guys did a great job behind me defense-wise and they put up runs which is awesome," Mazzaro said. "It definitely settled me down and I got into a groove."

The Royals had a well-balanced attack. Alex Gordon had three of the 13 hits. Billy Butler's two hits included a two-run double. Chris Getz had two run-scoring singles. Mitch Maier, filling in for Jeff Francoeur, scored three runs. Matt Treanor had an RBI double.

"The way Vinny was pitching, it made it feel pretty comfortable," Gordon said. "Just going out there and relaxing and knowing that he was going to take care of business."

Heck, even the light-hitting Escobar belted a double and a single, giving him a six-game streak in which he's 10-for-21, .476. He was as proud of his energized hitting as his defense.

"He's starting to hit, he's starting to get it figured out," Yost said.

Escobar's defense, though, was especially formidable. Probably no play was more impressive than the way he snatched Mark Trumbo's sizzling one-hop shot in the fifth inning to start a double play via second baseman Getz.

"Wow, that was hot," Escobar said. "When I saw the ball I said, 'Base hit or I got it.' I saw the ball and said, 'OK, I got it.'"

Escobar also fielded ground balls, stepped on second and threw to first baseman Eric Hosmer for double plays in both the first and fourth innings. In the second, he snagged Hank Conger's line drive and caught Howard Kendrick off second base for his unassisted DP. He also started a 6-4-3 twin killing in the sixth inning.

That's the way the afternoon went with Mazzaro getting 14 of his 21 outs on ground balls.

"Vinny pitched a heck of a game," Getz said. "We got some ground balls and were able to turn some double plays. And that's his game, he has a great sinker so when guys get on, he has that ability to get that contact on the ground. ... It keeps us on our toes but that's his game."

His game enabled the Royals to pull off five double plays in a game for the first time since Sept. 10, 2009, against Detroit. This was the 11th time they've had five in a game and they've won 10 of those 11 games. The team record is six double plays in a game, accomplished three times.

After winning three of four games -- a spurt that followed 14 losses in 18 games -- the Royals looked at the American League Central standings on Sunday and saw they were just 6 1/2 games behind sagging Cleveland.

"We need to get it turned around and get on a bit of a run," Yost said. "I think we've won our last four after that little stretch that was painful to live through. But, if we can get on a bit of a run, we can make it interesting."

Getz thought about it and agreed.

"You never know," he said.

Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.