KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Angels this week gave their fans a glimmer of hope for the future, even if it’s too late to help the present.
Janson Junk pitched five innings in the Angels’ 4-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday afternoon, a day after José Suarez started in a shutout.
Junk, 26, and Suarez, 24, are both the type of young cost-controlled pitchers the Angels will need if they are going to be contenders again soon.
Neither is a top prospect who figures to work toward the front of the rotation, and both pitched against a Royals team that is worse than the Angels. However, on Sunday the Angels also saw Reid Detmers, 23, pitch five scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves.
That’s added up to three victories in four games, and a 3-3 trip to start the second half, providing some good news amid the discouraging news that Mike Trout is dealing with uncertainty over his back injury.
Junk, who was making his first start of the season for the Angels, struck out eight and walked one on his way to his first major league victory.
Junk was acquired last year from the New York Yankees in the Andrew Heaney trade, which also netted the Angels reliever Elvis Peguero. Junk had a 3.86 ERA in four games in the majors last season, followed by a 3.88 mark this season at Triple-A.
He had pitched just one major league inning this season before the Angels gave him the ball for the start on Wednesday.
Junk threw mostly a fastball that averaged 92.5 mph and a slider. His first three strikeouts came on the slider, but four of the last five were on his fastball.
Junk allowed the Royals to get a hitter into scoring position just once, and he escaped the fourth by getting Kyle Isbel on a groundout.
Manager Phil Nevin pulled him after he issued a leadoff walk in the sixth.
Andrew Wantz struck out to finish the inning with the shutout intact. At that point, the Angels had a 2-0 lead after rallying in the top of the fifth.
Kurt Suzuki led off the inning with a double into left, the Angels’ first hit of the game against Royals starter Brad Keller. An out later, Phil Gosselin tripled when right fielder MJ Melendez couldn’t hang on to his drive at the right-field fence. Gosselin scored on a Brandon Marsh single.
Marsh led off the seventh with a triple down the right-field line, and he scored when Andrew Velazquez broke his bat on a tapper back to the mound and pitcher Dylan Coleman flipped the ball over the head of first baseman Ryan O’Hearn.
Velazquez then scored on a Shohei Ohtani single, building the lead to 4-0.
Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera and Raisel Iglesias worked the final three innings to secure the victory.
