Brett, Royals Too Much for Angels, 5-2 : Baseball: He gets four hits and ends night 57 short in his quest for 3,000.

You can go by the numbers to calculate how long it might take George Brett to reach 3,000 hits.

Or you could go by his four-hit game in Kansas City’s 5-2 victory over the Angels Wednesday night. At that impossible pace, Brett would have the 57 hits he needs by two weeks from Saturday.

“I want to do it this month, if I can,” said Brett, 39. “I’ve done it before, gotten 50 hits in a month.”

He will probably be racing against the schedule at season’s end, hoping to reach the milestone so he can comfortably choose to retire with 3,000 hits in his pocket. Otherwise, he will be back, even if just for the month or so it takes to notch No. 3,000.

Brett’s fourth hit Wednesday, a sixth-inning single to center, gave him 2,943, tying Frank Robinson for 21st on the all-time list. By the time he reached first, most of the Royals Stadium crowd of 24,300 was already on its feet, giving him a warm, sustained ovation.

It marked the 52nd four-hit game in Brett’s career and his third of the season. Brett has had five hits in a game five times, but not since 1986. He got a chance to do it a sixth time when he got to the plate with one out in the eighth. But he grounded to first.

“Brett had a tremendous night, just like I’ve seen him do for so many, many years,” said Angel interim Manager John Wathan, who played with Brett and managed him during his Royal career. “He’s swinging the bat very well, like he usually does this time of year. He gets hot and can carry a ballclub.”

Over the past 14 games, Brett is hitting .350. His season average is .277.

Brett wasn’t the only player to have a four-hit game. He was joined by Gregg Jefferies, who singled in each of his at-bats, only one of his hits solid.

Jefferies also drove in the go-ahead run, breaking a 2-2 tie in the fourth when his single drove in Brian McRae, who singled and stole second.

The Royals added to their lead in the fifth, scoring two runs and knocking out Julio Valera after he loaded the bases and walked in the second run of the inning. Valera (5-9) struggled with his control. He gave up five runs and nine hits, walking five.

Tom Gordon (5-9) earned the victory after starter Rick Reed left the game with a strained knee in the fourth. Jeff Montgomery earned his 26th save.

An episode in the game that probably will make its share of highlight shows was Von Hayes’ ejection, which was punctuated when he angrily heaved a plastic crate of gum and sunflower seeds onto the field as he left the dugout.

Hayes was tossed in the sixth inning by third-base umpire Al Clark when Clark signaled strike three after catcher Brent Mayne appealed on Hayes’ half-swing.

“I’m not sure whether he swung or not, but he shouldn’t have been thrown out of the ballgame,” Wathan said. “He didn’t swear at him. (Clark) said it was body language.”

Hayes, who said the call on whether he swung “could have gone either way,” wasn’t ejected until after he reached the dugout.

“I glared at him and shook my head,” Hayes said. “I stared at him, and he kept looking at me. I pointed back to the field where the pitcher was about to go in his windup and said, ‘The game’s out there.’ He threw me out.”

Wathan ran out to Clark, soon followed by Hayes, who got in one final word as he headed for the tunnel, throwing the crate onto the artificial turf, where batboys scrambled to clean up the mess.

“Perhaps he thought the umpires wanted some sunflower seeds or gum, I don’t know,” Wathan said.

It was Hayes’ second ejection of the season--he was thrown out of a July 4 game at Toronto for arguing with plate umpire Larry McCoy over a called strike.

On the whole, the night belonged to Brett, who might be in the heat of his chase for 3,000 when the Royals play at Anaheim Stadium in the next to last series of the season.

“I’d like to see it,” Wathan said. “I played with George and was with him many years. I’d like to see it in a losing cause for the Royals.”