Salmon’s Shining Season : Baseball: Angel right fielder says it’s not his best, but two more homers in 9-1 win over Royals say otherwise.

He’s built like a linebacker and hits like one too. He runs like a sprinter and throws like a Pro Bowl quarterback.

But it’s still tough to spot right fielder Tim Salmon among the Angels’ lineup of heavy hitters.

That changed for at least one game Wednesday when Salmon seized the spotlight by hitting two home runs in the Angels’ 9-1 victory over Kansas City.

The Angels continued to hit like a beer-league softball team, treating Royal starter Melvin Bunch and three relievers to 17 hits, including four home runs.

They won their eighth consecutive road game and moved to 24 games over the .500 mark for the first time since Sept. 23, 1989. The Royals have lost 11 of their last 12 games against left-handed pitchers and are 7-19 overall.

Left-hander Chuck Finley pitched four-hit ball for 6 2/3 innings, picking up his ninth victory over Kansas City in 11 starts.

But he wasn’t the story Wednesday.

Neither was Jim Edmonds, who homered and doubled, J.T. Snow, who homered and singled, or Spike Owen, who singled and tripled.

No, this was Salmon’s night to shine.

Not that it should come as any surprise. After all, he is batting .328 with 26 homers and 78 runs batted in.

It’s simply that he has been so overshadowed by his teammates that it’s sometimes tough to pick him out of the crowd.

“It happened my first year when J.T. [Snow] stole all the limelight,” said Salmon, who was the American League rookie of the year that season. “Last year, it was Chili [Davis]. This year, pick ‘em. It could be J.T., Jimmy Edmonds or Garret [Anderson].

“I’m comfortable with that. I’m fine not being the focus of attention.”

Sound strange in this age of inflated egos and shameless self-promoters?

Read on.

Of his eighth-inning, line-drive, three-run homer to center field, he said: “It was almost like magic.”

There was nothing magical about the way Salmon clobbered the first pitch reliever Gregg Olson threw him.

Truth be told, Salmon discarded his usual method of operation in hitting home runs. Instead of lofting a towering drive to left or right, he smashed two line drives to center.

Perhaps that’s what made Wednesday’s homers unusual.

The first, in the fourth inning, followed Edmonds’ bases-empty homer, giving the Angels a 3-0 lead. The second merely put the game out of reach at 9-1.

“I was like, ‘How’d that get out?’ ” Salmon said of his second homer. “I’ve never hit a ball like that.”

Rest assured, Wednesday’s performance will be forgotten by the time Salmon returns to the field for today’s series finale against the Royals. He’s determined to avoid getting caught up in reliving past glories.

When somebody asked how he would rate this, his third big-league season, he quickly responded that his rookie year of 1993 was by far his best.

A quick check shows he’s out to lunch.

In ‘93, he hit .283 with 31 homers and 95 RBIs. Barring injury or labor strife, he should easily surpass those numbers. Besides, he’s batting .490 with eight homers and 23 RBIs in his last 13 games.

Self-doubt and self-criticism seem to be the only demons troubling Salmon at this point.

“If it were Ken Griffey with the same numbers I have, it would be like, ‘Oh, man, you can’t get him out,” Salmon said. “But put my name in there and it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m having trouble with all these different pitches.’

“I guess I’ve been so quietly good. Everybody else is doing so much, getting all the praise. I’m doing it quietly.

“There are more things I could be doing. When you’re on the outside, it probably looks like I’m doing great. I feel like I’m having a good year, but it’s not my best year.”

Perhaps when it’s over he will have reason to think otherwise.