The Kansas City Royals probably don’t need to see Shohei Othani again anytime soon. They’ve almost certainly got their fill of the Japanese sensation and reigning American League MVP.

Ohtani followed his two home run, eight-RBI performance from Tuesday night with a career-high 13 strikeouts and eight scoreless innings as Wednesday night’s Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher.

The Royals, who entered the night looking for a series sweep, ended up getting shut out for the 10th time this season in a 5-0 loss to the Angels in front of an announced 34,792 in the finale of a three-game series at Angel Stadium. Their only two hits came in the first inning in their first two at-bats of the game.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez did not play due to the thumb injury that forced him out of Tuesday night’s game.

“We just kind of ran into a buzzsaw tonight,” Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “He had his good stuff and we weren’t able to scratch one across there early, which I think would have probably changed the course of the game. But we weren’t able to. Credit to him.

“We won the series. It’ll be a good flight home.”

The Royals (25-43) finished up their nine-game, 10-day West Coast swing having gone 5-4 with a pair of series victories and five wins in their last seven games of the trip.

“We saw a lot of good things,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said of the road trip. “I’m not going to let these guys forget about a game like (Tuesday) night. Today was what it was, but we had a lot of good things to bring off of this trip and take back home and hopefully continue more of the same when we get back.”

On Wednesday night, Andrew Benintendi (1 for 4) and Merrifield (1 for 3, walk) had the only hits for the Royals.

Ohtani looked even more dominant on the mound than he had in the batter’s box the previous night. He gave up a pair of singles in the first inning, but then struck out five of the next six batters he faced.

Ohtani mowed down Royals hitters efficiently and methodically. He threw just 70 pitches to get through five innings and still racked up 10 strikeouts.

After giving up two hits to start the game, he retired 16 consecutive batters.

The Royals had just one base runner against Ohtani after the first inning. That came on a sixth-inning walk by Merrifield.

“That was a display,” Matheny said. “That’s a very unique repertoire of pitches. I don’t think you’re going to find many guys with as many weapons as what we saw today. He was throwing it all for strikes. He mixed up even the break. He was throwing three different sliders plus a cutter and a curve. Then when the split started going, that’s really when the strikeouts started adding up. And he’s got 100 (mph) in the tank that he hardly ever showed.”

Royals starting pitcher Daniel Lynch allowed one run on three hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five.

“I honestly wasn’t even really aware of what was going on over there until I came out of the game,” Lynch said of matching up with Ohtani. “I didn’t know how many strikeouts he had or whatever. …

“When a guy is throwing that well, if I want to win the game, I’m going to have to match it and probably get through six and not give up any runs. Obviously, I didn’t.”

Lynch (3-7) finished his outing having thrown a seasonhigh 104 pitches, the secondmost in an game in his majorleague career.

Lynch threw 30 pitches to retire the side in the first inning. He struck out two and walked two in that frame, but that pitch count factored into him not completing five innings.

Both of Lynch’s first-inning walks came on 3-2 counts. The first walk, while facing Ohtani, came after he’d made a couple borderline pitches, including one with two strikes, that were called balls.

“I think I made some pretty good pitches that maybe had a couple guys struck out,” Lynch said. “I haven’t looked at it.”

Lynch struck out Max Stassi swinging to end the first inning and strand two men on base.

Neither team scratched out much offense through the first four innings, but the Angels made headway in the fifth.

The Angels loaded the bases on a pair of one-out walks by Taylor Ward and Ohtani followed by an infield single from Luis Rengifo. David MacKinnon then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to give the Angels a 1-0 advantage and chase Lynch from the game.

“It was definitely a battle,” Lynch said. “It was definitely a grind, but I think I’d say the only negative takeaway was that I had a lot of guys on the ropes that kind of just got back into the count. I threw some pitches that I probably didn’t need to throw. But you’re going to have those days where it’s kind of a grind. We had a pretty good shot to win that game when I left.”

Reliever Taylor Clarke entered with two outs and two men on base in the fifth. Clarke got an inning-ending strikeout to keep it a one-run game.

In the seventh, the Angels added two more runs to their lead against reliever Amir Garrett. Both runs scored with two outs as a leadoff four-pitch walk came back to haunt Garrett. He did not finish the inning after he got to two outs.

The Angels (34-38) scored two more in the eighth against reliever Foster Griffin, who was recalled prior to the game. The Royals optioned reliever Gabe Speier to Triple-A to make room for Griffin.

The Royals did not put a man on base in the final three innings. Following a day off on Thursday, the Royals will host the Oakland Athletics in the first game of a six-game homestand starting on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.

“It was a good road trip, come home and try to have a good homestand,” Merrifield said. “But (there was) definitely some promise on this road trip. Some good things happened, and we’ll try to keep building on that.”

Familiar faces part of Angels celebration

The Angels honored their 2002 World Series championship team with a 20-year reunion ceremony on the field prior to Wednesday night’s game. First pitch did not take place until 7:01 p.m. (PT).

The television broadcasters for the Angels during the championship team were current Royals broadcasters for Bally Sports Kansas City Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler. Royals Hall of Fame pitcher Kevin Appier, who pitched 13 seasons in Kansas City from 1989-99 and 2003-04, was also part of that Angels team.