KANSAS CITY— Left-hander Danny Duffy threw six innings of one-run ball, Eric Hosmer belted a two-run homer and the Royals’ weary bullpen this time held on through three scoreless innings to sew up a 4-1 series-evening win over the Angels on Friday night.

The Royals had lost leads of 4-2 and 5-1 the previous two nights, but this time the trio of Ryan Madson, Kelvin Herrera and Greg Holland held off the Angels. Holland struck out the side in the ninth, allowing a two-out single to David Murphy before fanning Kole Calhoun, who hit a go-ahead two-run double off the Royals’ closer in Thursday’s win, to end the game and earn his 26th save.

“Holly came up [to us] today, he wanted to get back on the horse bad,” manager Ned Yost said. “In any type of save situation, he was going out there. He was spectacular. ... He’s got a lot of confidence in his abilities and he wants the ball in those situations.”

Added Duffy: “Nothing really is going to bring us down to the point that we can’t pick ourselves back up and dust ourselves off again. We’re a very confident group and we just try to erase and re-record.”

Jered Weaver started for the Angels and went six innings, giving up four hits and three runs, two of them earned. He walked two and struck out three while picking up the loss, as the Angels dropped to 2 1/2 games back of the Astros in the American League West.

“I felt good today,” Weaver said after his second start since coming off the disabled list. “Command was good. Just one bad pitch.”