Angels Have to Settle for Split With the Royals : Baseball: DiSarcina drives in four runs during first-game victory, but Howard’s inside-the-park home run leads Kansas City in second game.

John Wathan knows his way around Royals Stadium. He knows all of the tunnels and many of the attendants and their posts.

The Angels’ interim manager also knows firsthand how the lights can blind an outfielder and leave him looking foolish. Wathan was once hit in the chest by a line drive during the 1980 American League playoffs when he was an outfielder for the Kansas City Royals.

So when Chad Curtis missed David Howard’s fly ball to left and helplessly watched it roll to the wall for a three-run, inside-the-park homer during the Angels’ 4-1 loss to the Royals in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader split, Wathan didn’t have to ask.

“He lost the ball in the lights,” said Wathan, a former Kansas City manager who spent his entire career in the Royals’ organization before joining the Angels this season. “I’ve seen it happen a number of times in this ballpark. . . . There are probably more inside-the-park home runs here than any other park, except maybe St. Louis.”

Something else Wathan had seen a number of times in Royals Stadium was a victory for Bert Blyleven. In the first game, Blyleven (5-5) notched the 284th of his career, tying Ferguson Jenkins for 24th on the all-time list. Blyleven gave up only one run and two hits over six innings during the Angels’ 5-1 victory.

Shortstop Gary DiSarcina did his part, driving in a career-high four runs and coming within a triple of becoming the fourth Angel to hit for the cycle.

Blyleven’s 34 victories against the Royals are more than he has against any other team. The Royals are the last team to be shut out by Blyleven, in 1989, and the last team he has pitched a complete game against, in 1990.

“The names have changed, the faces have changed,” Blyleven said. “But I always feel very comfortable on the mound here. They’ve had some great hitters come through this ballpark. Why my success has been here, I don’t know. Maybe when you go out on a mound where you’ve had success, you go out with a little more confidence.”

The Angels, who had won nine in a row against the Royals before dropping the second game, settled for a split in the doubleheader, which made up for an April 19 rainout.

They trailed in the second game, 1-0, before the seventh, when Howard hit the first inside-the-park homer in the stadium this year.

The ball never touched Curtis’ glove. By the time center fielder Junior Felix ran it down at the wall and threw it in, it was too late.

“When it was 1-0, I was pretty sure we were going to win,” Curtis said. “When it’s 4-0, that’s a lot bigger obstacle to overcome.”

Gary Gaetti’s ninth-inning homer, his eighth homer of the season, cut the margin to three, and made Curtis’ inability to catch Howard’s fly all the more crucial--though Curtis said it didn’t affect his thinking.

“What if we score 20 runs? We would have won,” he said. “I’m not going to beat myself up just because Gaetti hit a home run.

“The ball got in the lights. I couldn’t see it any more. I was guessing, that’s all I could do.”

The Angels wasted a good effort by Tim Fortugno (1-1), a rookie who didn’t allow a baserunner through the first three innings of the second game. But after Gregg Jefferies led off the fourth with a line-drive single to center, Fortugno walked Wally Joyner. Then, Jefferies and Joyner executed a double steal to put runners on second and third, and George Brett followed with a sacrifice fly to right.

Fortugno, who went six innings, gave up three hits and two runs.

Luis Aquino (2-2) held the Angels scoreless on seven hits over 6 2/3 innings.

The Angels’ victory in the first game came against Kevin Appier (12-4), who had won his last nine decisions and whose 2.12 earned-run average was the lowest in the American League.

DiSarcina, who bats ninth and hadn’t had an extra-base hit since July 20, hurt Appier more than anybody. He singled, doubled and hit his third homer of the year in his first three at-bats. He knew what he wanted to do in his last one: triple.

If he had hit one, DiSarcina would have joined Jim Fregosi, Dan Ford and Dave Winfield as the only Angels to hit for the cycle.

“Guys on the bench were saying, ‘No matter where you hit it, run and keep running,’ ” DiSarcina said. “After I struck out, I thought about running back to the dugout.”