The Kansas City Royals are the latest Major League Baseball team to reach 70 wins this season.They arrived at that milestone with a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Monday evening at Kauffman Stadium. In the process, they also extended their winning streak to five games and propelled themselves a half-game closer to Cleveland in the American League Central race.The Royals (70-55) got a superb performance from All-Star pitcher Seth Lugo. The veteran right-hander rebounded from his last start and limited the Angels to four hits and two runs in seven innings.Lugo struck out eight and improved to 14-7 this season.“I thought it went pretty well,” Lugo said. “I made some adjustments in-between starts.”Lugo used his full arsenal of pitches but found particular success with his four-seam fastball and slurve. He got a combined 25 swings and four whiffs from the Angels’ lineup on those two pitches, per Baseball Savant.He said that fastball command was one of his key adjustments over the last few days.“I saw my fastballs were a little higher in the (strike) zone and trying to go down,” Lugo said. “The vert on my fastball wasn’t how I like it to be. So I think I fixed those two things — got vert open and made some better pitches down. It opened up the top of the zone.”Both the fastball and slurve were particularly useful in the fifth inning.After the Royals took a 3-0 lead, Lugo ran into some slight trouble. He allowed a leadoff double to Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe to begin the frame. Next, he walked second baseman Brandon Drury to bring the tying run to the plate.It was a key moment in the game, but Lugo was able to work around the traffic. He struck out Mickey Moniak, Jo Adell and Taylor Ward with his four-seam fastball.“I knew the hitters’ weakness. They chase up a little bit,” Lugo said. “I think the way I pitched throughout the game kind of set up those pitches.”The Royals scored two more runs in the seventh inning when team captain Salvador Perez hit a two-run double to bring home Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino.“I like big opportunities and I was trying to do my job,” Perez said. “It was a pretty good moment, you know? Even winning the game is even better. It was a pretty good pitch from that guy, too. I put a ...
