Snow Impresses His Hero : Angels: His home run helps beat the Royals, 5-3, and makes a believer of Joyner. Curtis goes three for three, scores twice.

Kansas City Royal first baseman Wally Joyner heard all about the kid, read the reviews, and wondered if someone really could recapture the magic he created seven years ago.

Count Joyner among the believers after watching J.T. Snow hit a three-run homer Saturday, leading the Angels to a 5-3 victory over Kansas City before 28,197 at Anaheim Stadium.

Wally World, meet your sequel.

“He’s definitely for real,” said Joyner, who hit a solo homer during the fourth. “There’s just an aura about him. You can see how confident he is in his ability.

“Good things happen to good people, and I’m definitely pulling for him.”

Snow, who was in a four-for-58 slide when he hit the third-inning homer, grew up patterning his game after Joyner’s. He came out to Anaheim Stadium to study every move Joyner made, dreaming one day that he could be the next Wally Joyner.

“I was an Angel fan growing up, and when Wally did his thing,” Snow said, “I got caught up in Wally World. So for him to be here tonight, to see me hit a homer, was something I’ll never forget.”

Joyner, who introduced himself to Snow last season after Snow was called up to the New York Yankees, took time to personally congratulate him during the eighth inning. He told Snow not to worry about slumps and to enjoy himself.

“I know I’ll never forget it as long as I live,” Joyner said of his Wally World days. “It’s something J.T. should cherish, too, because there’s nothing like it.”

Snow, whose batting average had dropped nearly 200 points in the last three weeks, stepped to the plate during the third inning with one out and runners on first and second. He told himself to be patient, angry at some of the pitches he has been swinging at of late. He watched Royal starter Mark Gubicza fall behind in the count, 3-and-1, knowing that Gubicza had no choice but to come in with a strike.

Gubicza threw a fastball over the heart of the plate, and Snow sent it deep into the right-field seats. It was only Snow’s third hit in the last week, all of which have been home runs.

Snow’s rash of homers--six in the first 13 games and nine overall--actually might have prompted the slump, Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said.

“J.T.’s just starting to get his swing back,” Rodgers said. “He was in one of those home-run things. You have eight in the first 1 1/2 months, and you start to think you’re Babe Ruth.

“It was Wally World 2, and everything else. You’d be inhuman if you didn’t get caught up in that a little bit.”

While Snow’s homer gave the Angels a 4-1 lead that they never relinquished--using starter Scott Lewis (1-1) for five innings and three relievers with Joe Grahe pitching 1 2/3 hitless innings for his fourth save--the unsung hero of the night was center fielder Chad Curtis.

Curtis, who was benched Friday night by Rodgers for “being overaggressive,” went three for three--a double and two infield singles--stole two bases, scored two runs, and made a leaping catch against the center-field wall that robbed Greg Gagne of at least a double.

“I was hoping Buck would bench him the whole series,” Royal Manager Hal McRae said. “He’s the kind of guy you just hate to see in the game. He can just make so many things happen.”

The Angels’ biggest fear this game was not their pitching, but whether they would have enough coaches to finish the game.

Angel bench coach John Wathan was ejected during the first inning for arguing a called third strike on leadoff hitter Luis Polonia. One inning later, Rodgers joined Wathan in the clubhouse, also ejected by home-plate umpire Drew Coble.

Rodgers ran out of the dugout screaming at Coble after he ruled that Mike Macfarlane was safe at the plate during the second inning.