Angel Defense Ties a Record, Ties Up Royals : Baseball: The team’s 12th consecutive errorless game equals the league mark and helps ensure a 4-2 victory.

Some players watched TV, while others dived into the fried chicken from the postgame spread. One or two wrestled on the couch with Gary Gaetti’s two young sons, but no one in the Angels’ clubhouse gave any indication that their 4-2 victory over the Royals Tuesday was in any way remarkable.

If the Angels were excited over claiming a share of the American League record with their 12th consecutive errorless game, they hid it well.

“We won tonight, and that’s what we’re worried about,” first baseman Wally Joyner said. “If we make an error tomorrow and win, who cares?”

The Angels wouldn’t have won without several sparkling defensive plays.

If Dave Gallagher hadn’t played Danny Tartabull’s double off the center-field wall just right and hadn’t made a strong throw to the cutoff man, second baseman Luis Sojo; and if Sojo hadn’t made a perfect throw to the plate to get George Brett trying to score from first base, the Angels would have been in trouble in the fifth inning.

Kirk Gibson had scored ahead of Brett to give Kansas City a 2-1 lead, and the Angels would have had a tough time making up a two-run deficit against the maddening off-speed pitches of Mike Boddicker (6-6).

“That relay was as important as anything we did tonight,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said after his club matched the American League errorless record of the 1963 Detroit Tigers and moved within three games of the major league record, set in 1975 by the Cincinnati Reds and equaled this year by the St. Louis Cardinals.

“It’s virtually impossible to do anything real efficiently from an overall standpoint without good defense,” Rader added. “We played awfully well defensively, especially our infield defense.”

They wouldn’t have won without the double play turned by Joyner in the bottom of the sixth inning, after the Angels had pulled even, 2-2, in the top of the inning. With Mike Macfarlane on first base after a single, Joyner grabbed Kurt Stillwell’s grounder, stepped on the bag and threw to shortstop Donnie Hill, who tagged Macfarlane out at second to complete the double play.

The list goes on.

“I think when you realize you’re comfortable playing with the guy next to (and) across from you, knowing their capabilities allows you, as an individual, to play within yourself and play with confidence,” said Joyner, who made the club’s last error, June 12 against Milwaukee, when he failed to hold on to a pickoff throw by Ron Tingley.

Kirk McCaskill (7-8) was comfortable with--and grateful for--the defense Tuesday.

After Gallagher and Sojo helped him get out of the fifth inning, McCaskill pitched capably into the eighth, leaving after he gave up a one-out walk to Tartabull. Mark Eichhorn got the final two outs of the eighth inning.

After giving up a leadoff double to Stillwell in the ninth, Bryan Harvey got his 19th save by striking out Warren Cromartie and Hal McRae and getting Gibson to ground out.

“The (fifth-inning) relay was beautiful, and we had just great defense all night,” said McCaskill, who ended a personal three-game losing streak. “Donnie Hill made some great plays, too. Those are good examples of why defense is so important. Those plays aren’t made, and it’s a totally different ballgame.”

After getting out of a potentially damaging inning, the Angels bounced back to tie the score, 2-2, in the sixth. Luis Polonia led off with a single, took second on Gallagher’s grounder to the right side and third on Boddicker’s errant pickoff throw. Polonia scored on Joyner’s grounder to second.

Not shy at the plate after being hit on the head Thursday, Sojo took a slow curveball from Boddicker on his right foot leading off the eighth.

He advanced to second on John Orton’s sacrifice and to third on a deft bunt up the third-base line by Polonia. Gallagher grounded to short, bringing Sojo home and moving Polonia into scoring position. Joyner’s two-out single scored Polonia to make it 4-2.

“I can’t say enough about Wally’s hit,” McCaskill said.

Most of the Angels didn’t want to say anything at all about their fielding streak.

“It’s nice and you can go ahead and talk about it, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Rader said.

Tying the record won’t be on their minds tonight, when they play the finale of this 13-game odyssey. Having a winning record will be their chief goal: they’re 6-6. They can also sweep the Royals, but after winning the first two games are at least guaranteed their first series victory since they swept three games from the Red Sox June 4-6.

“(Tying the record) means you’re playing good and doing what you’re supposed to be doing,” Hill said. “I just hope it continues.”