--LHP John Bale, who is on the disabled list, threw a scoreless inning Friday for Class AA Northwest Arkansas on a minor league rehab assignment. Bale threw 12 pitches, eight for strikes, while striking out one, walking one and not allowing a hit. Bale had thyroid surgery in spring training.
--Major League Baseball ruled in favor of the Royals' appeal to overturn a scoring decision made May 8 at Anaheim. Howie Kendrick was originally given an inside-the-park homer, but the ruling took that away and gave an error to RF Jose Guillen, who had the ball flick off his glove. RHP Gil Meche had two earned runs removed from his ledger. --The Royals batted .201 and scored nine runs while going 0-5 on a trip to Oakland and Anaheim.
--RHP Joakim Soria, who is on the disabled list with a sore right shoulder, threw only two innings for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic while absent from the Royals spring training for 17 days. Soria is the seventh WBC pitcher to have spent time on the disabled list this season. While Royals general manager Dayton Moore said he likes the WBC, he wonders if it could have led to Soria's shoulder problems. "I don't think it helps," Moore told the Kansas City Star. "We couldn't control his work. If you can't control a pitcher's workload and you can't script their preparation during spring training, it's a problem."
BY THE NUMBERS: .196 -- Royals' batting average in scoring a total of four runs in being swept in a three-game series by the Angels at Anaheim.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I think we're better than that. I've seen it, so I know we're better than that." -- Royals manager Trey Hillman, on the frail offense against the Angels.
