Zack Greinke did his job, shutting out his old team, the Royals, for eight innings on Saturday. Ernesto Frieri didn’t do his. After coming in with one on and one out in the ninth, he gave up back-to-back homers to Billy Butler and Salvador Perez, giving Kansas City a 3-2 win over the Angels.
Mike Scioscia will surely have to face some tough questions after this one. Greinke was at a modest 103 pitches when he departed. He hadn’t given up an extra-base hit all night. And as great as Frieri has been this year, he had just thrown 30 pitches in picking up a save in Friday’s game. Not that six pitches was much of a sample, but he didn’t have his typical velocity tonight.
It’s a huge loss for the Angels, though there’s still the chance the Orioles will pick them up by knocking off Oakland tonight. At best, they’ll enter Sunday’s season finale five games back of the A’s in the loss column with 16 games left to go this season. And they’re going to have to pass some team in the A’s-Orioles-Yankees group to have a shot at the wild card.