Kansas City, Mo. ? With an umpire behind the plate that has given him bad dreams, Zack Greinke was nervous.

Throwing 27 pitches in a shaky first inning when he gave up two walks and a single didn’t help, either.

Then Greinke settled down, and his Kansas City teammates started doing what they hardly ever do: score runs in bunches. The result was a 9-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels that improved Greinke’s record to 4-1 and averted a three-game sweep.

“It was a total team game,” said Royals outfielder David DeJesus, who contributed a three-run home run to the 14-hit attack by the AL’s lowest-scoring offense. “Zack was just throwing strikes, pounding the strike zone. Everyone did something today. We got key hits with runners on base.”