Abreu homer lifts Angels over Royals

8/12/2010

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Bobby Abreu homered in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday to give the Los Angeles Angels a 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals and a three-game sweep.

Abreu sent a 1-1 pitch from Jesse Chavez (0-1) into the right-field seats with one out. The Angels rushed from the dugout to greet Abreu but stood back, giving him plenty of room to safely cross the plate.

Kendry Morales suffered a season-ending broken leg on May 29 while jumping on home plate during a raucous celebration of a walkoff grand slam.

Brian Fuentes (1-0) pitched a perfect 10th to get the victory.

Angels starter Jered Weaver struck out 11, giving him a major league-leading 182. He surpassed his career-high of 174 strikeouts last season.

At Seattle, Dallas Braden tossed a four-hitter for his fourth career complete game, Mark Ellis hit three doubles and drove in three runs, and the Oakland cruised past Seattle. Braden (7-8) won for just the third time in nine decisions since throwing a perfect game on May 9 against Tampa Bay. He was out from June 23-July 20 with left elbow tightness, but is 3-1 since coming off the disabled list. Luke French (1-3) went six innings in the loss. He allowed seven hits and four runs.

At Toronto, Bill Hall hit two home runs, Adrian Beltre and J.D. Drew also connected, Boston beat Toronto once again in a rout. Hall, who drove in four runs, and Mike Lowell each had three hits as the Red Sox improved to 9-2 against Toronto this season. The Red Sox have hit 153 home runs this season, second in the majors to Toronto's 178. Clay Buchholz (13-5) won his third straight decision, allowing one unearned run and five hits in eight innings and lowering his ERA to 2.49.

At Chicago, John Danks pitched seven sharp innings and Chicago beat Minnesota to move back into a first-place tie in the AL Central with the Twins.

Carlos Quentin homered in his second game in a row while helping the White Sox draw even again after being knocked out of first place for the first time since July 10 with a 12-6 loss to the Twins on Tuesday.

They fared better this time after dropping four of five, with a rare victory over a team that had won 18 of 23 against them. Danks (12-8) allowed one run and six hits.

Quentin hit a two-run shot in the second off Glen Perkins (0-1) that made it 2-0, and the White Sox continued to pile on from there, taking advantage of two throwing errors that helped set up runs on their way to an easy win.