Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Royals feel their speed can force opponents to make mistakes. Thursday night’s 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels was a great example.

The Angels committed three of their four errors in the sixth inning when the Royals broke open a 4-all tie.

“We have guys on the team that are fast, like me, David and Mark,” center fielder Joey Gathright said of himself, David DeJesus and Mark Grudzielanek. “I try to make teams nervous when I go up to hit.”

It worked in the decisive sixth.

With the score 4-4, Gathright led off the inning with a bunt single and continued to third on a throwing error by Kevin Gregg (2-3). Gathright scored when first baseman Kendry Morales misplayed DeJesus’ groundball. The third error came when Mike Napoli was charged with catcher’s interference on a pitchout when Doug Mientkiewicz reached for the pitch.

Kansas City's David DeJesus (9) slips past Angels catcher Mike Napoli to score a fourth-inning run. THe Royals beat L.A., 9-4, on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.

“We’ve seen it from our offensive end how if we’re aggressive we can cause mistakes,” Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia said. “Kansas City turned it right back on us. Gathright can run and force mistakes. These are things that are going to happen to a young team. It hasn’t happened in a while, but it happens.

“Crumple this one up and throw it away. We’ve been playing great baseball, and tonight is really something you wouldn’t have expected. But it happens. So you move forward. We’ve been playing very fundamentally sound baseball, aggressive baseball, for a long time now, and this game we’re just going to turn the page on.”

Kansas City manager Buddy Bell, whose team just returned from a 1-6 road trip, was happy to see the victory, even if it was sloppy.

“They helped us quite a bit, but our bullpen was outstanding,” he said. “Elmer (Dessens) was awesome when he came in in the fifth, and Ambiorix Burgos was outstanding as well.

“We needed that.”

Dessens (5-7) picked up the win with three scoreless innings.