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Upon review, Royals' Butler hits walkoff vs. Angels

Jun 2, 2011 - 1:04 AM Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Billy Butler hit a two-run homer, which was originally ruled a double but was overturned by a review, in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Royals over the Angels, 2-0, in the rubber match of a three- game series.

Tim Collins (3-2) earned the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief of Felipe Paulino, who was making his first start of the season after being acquired from the Rockies last week.

Jeff Francoeur had two hits and scored on Butler's blast as the Royals won their second straight after a three-game losing streak.

Reliever Scott Downs (3-2) took the loss when he allowed Butler's homer, and the Angels suffered their fifth setback in their last nine games.

Angels starter Tyler Chatwood allowed five hits and two walks through 7 2/3 scoreless innings.

"Obviously you want to win the series, but sometimes losing this way isn't that bad. It was a hell of a game. Somebody had to score first and it just so happened to be them," said Chatwood.

Francoeur hit a one-out single before Butler came up and hit a ball that seemed to bounce off the very top of the left-field fence and came back into play. Francoeur stopped at third and Butler took second before umpires decided to look at the play again.

After a brief review, it was determined the ball did clear the top of the wall and ricocheted off the bottom of the front row of seats and back onto the field for Butler's fourth home run of the year.

"It feels good to win a series that way, especially a tight ballgame like that," said Butler.

The Angels had the bases loaded two different times in the game, but were not able to bring anybody across the plate.

They filled the bags with no outs in the third after Alexi Amarista singled, Peter Bourjos reached on a fielding error and Erick Aybar laid down a bunt single. But Paulino got Bobby Abreu to strike out before inducing a 6-4-3 double play from Torii Hunter to end the threat and keep the game scoreless.

The Angels also loaded the bases in the eighth inning with two outs off of three different pitchers. Greg Holland got two quick outs before allowing a single to Aybar. Everett Teaford took the mound next and Abreu greeted him with a double to put men on second and third. Then Louis Coleman entered the game and walked Hunter to load the bases.

The fourth pitcher of the inning, Tim Collins, took the bump next and Alberto Callaspo hit a hard grounder to the left side of the infield. Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar made a driving grab of the ball and threw it to first, just beating Callaspo to the bag to end the inning.

Game Notes

Despite the win, Kansas City went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base...The Angels went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.