Venable Slam Is Grand : * Baseball: Angels beat Royals, 10-3, to close within one game of division-leading Twins. Abbott wins seventh of last eight decisions.

Two firsts by Jim Abbott and Max Venable Tuesday helped lift the Angels within a game of first place in the American League West.

Venable hit the first grand slam of his career, a line drive into the right-field seats in the second inning, and Abbott earned his first victory over the Kansas City Royals, a 10-3 rout at Anaheim Stadium.

Abbott (7-5) wasn’t especially sharp in winning for the seventh time in his last eight decisions, but he didn’t have to be. Venable’s grand slam off Mark Gubicza (3-5), Wally Joyner’s two-run homer in the fourth inning and Dave Parker’s bases-empty homer to right field in the sixth gave Abbott ample support.

Minnesota is 45-33, the Angels 43-33. The Angels’ deficit is their smallest since June 2, when they were also a game out. They haven’t led the division since being tied for first place on April 20.

Abbott gave up eight hits and two runs over six innings, failing to get into the seventh for the first time in 11 starts. He had lost his five decisions against the Royals and now is winless only against the A’s. He is 0-5 against Oakland.

In addition to his homer--his first since Aug. 10--Venable had two singles before being replaced by Dave Gallagher in the fifth inning. Venable has 10 hits in his last 21 at-bats.

Parker’s sixth-inning homer lifted the Angels’ run production into double digits for the third time in six games. Unlike last Wednesday at Kansas City, when he was rocked for six runs in two-thirds of an inning, Gubicza got through the first inning unscathed. But the Angels jumped on him in the second inning for five runs, including Venable’s grand slam.

Parker led off with a broken-bat single to center, giving him hits in 14 of his last 16 games. Lance Parrish took a third strike and Gary Gaetti struck out swinging, but Donnie Hill’s hit-and-run single to right sent Parker to third base. He scored on Luis Sojo’s single to right.

Luis Polonia drew a walk, loading the bases. The walk was his 23rd, two short of his total with the Angels last season. Venable then lined Gubicza’s 0-and-1 pitch into the seats in right, not far from the foul pole, for his first career grand slam and the Angels’ third this season. It was also Venable’s first extra-base hit at home this season.

Perhaps unaccustomed to such lavish support, Abbott had an unsteady third inning, giving up three hits and two runs.

Terry Shumpert led off with a double into the left-field corner. Gary Thurman struck out, but Brian McRae singled through the right side of the infield and Shumpert, after hesitating for a moment, scored.

Abbott struck out George Brett--who had 11 hits in 18 career at-bats against him--but walked Danny Tartabull. Carmelo Martinez followed with a double to left, scoring McRae and moving Tartabull to third base. Abbott struck out Kevin Seitzer to end the inning.

The Angels got one run back in their half of the third to take a 6-2 lead.

Parker led off with a single to left field, and Lance Parrish singled off the glove of third baseman Seitzer. Gaetti also singled to left, and although Thurman fumbled the ball, the runners couldn’t move up.

With the bases loaded, Hill hit a grounder to the right side that was played by Shumpert. He tried to start a double play with a tag on Gaetti, but Gaetti dodged him and the ball fell out of Shumpert’s glove for an error. Parker scored.

Sojo grounded to Gubicza, who fielded the ball cleanly and lobbed it home for the force on Parrish. Catcher Mike Macfarlane then relayed to first for an inning-ending double play.

The Angels gave Abbott two more runs in the fourth inning, when Joyner followed Venable’s single with a towering home run to right.

Still, it wasn’t smooth for Abbott, who got into jams in the fourth and fifth innings. Shumpert’s two-out grounder to shortstop in the fourth ended up with him in scoring position when he took second when Hill’s throw sailed wildly past first. Abbot walked Thurman but struck out McRae to curtail the threat.

Abbott gave up a leadoff double to Brett in the fifth inning--the 574th of Brett’s career, tying him for 10th all-time--but got out of that with the help of good infield defense.

Gaetti had to go to his backhand to stab a liner by Martinez before it flashed down the left-field line for extra bases. Hill then fielded Seitzer’s high chopper and threw him out at first to spare Abbott a lengthy inning.

Gubicza was relieved by Andy McGaffigan for the start of the fifth. Parrish walked and was safe at second base when Seitzer made a high throw to second on Gaetti’s grounder. Hill took a third strike, but Sojo’s blooper fell into shallow right-center for a single, loading the bases. Mike Magnante replaced McGaffigan in time to face Luis Polonia, who grounded to short and almost beat the throw to first. But it did score Parrish, for a 9-2 Angel lead.