Angels Get Hits, but No Runs : Baseball: They lose, 5-0, as the Royals hold them scoreless for the first time since May 2.

The plan, simple as it sounded, figured to be difficult to carry out for Kansas City Royal left-hander Jason Jacome.

His instructions Thursday at Kauffman Stadium were to keep the ball low and away from Angel hitters. If his pitches were too low, well, at least the Angels wouldn’t be swinging and belting them over the fence.

Lo and behold, it worked wonderfully as Jacome and two relievers combined to shut out the Angels, 5-0, before an announced crowd of 16,699.

It was the first time the Angels had been shut out in more than three months and ended their eight-game road winning streak.

Seattle’s Randy Johnson struck out 15 Angels on June 24 but gave up two runs. Milwaukee’s Ricky Bones threw a three-hitter against them on July 8 but lost, 1-0. Sunday, Roger Pavlik and the Texas bullpen yielded eight hits, the fewest the Angels had gotten this month until Thursday, but gave up two runs.

“I tried not to be intimidated by what they did against anybody else,” Jacome said.

It wasn’t easy. The Angels started the game with a major league-leading 600 runs. They were averaging six runs and 11 hits a game. Jacome began his fourth start for Kansas City with an 0-2 record and an 8.82 earned-run average.

A mismatch all the way, right?

Yes, but not as one might have thought. Jacome took the ball, hammered it low, and the Angels couldn’t hit it. Soon enough, the ball was on its way to Jacome’s father, Kenneth.

“He’s got the ball from my first [National League] win too,” Jacome said.

Through seven strong innings, Jacome gave up only four singles, with three strikeouts and two walks. The Angels got runners as far as second base twice.

Then relievers Hipolito Pichardo and Jeff Montgomery kept the Angels scoreless in the eighth and ninth.

Angel starter Mark Langston (11-2) upheld his end of the pitchers’ duel until the sixth, when the Royals broke through for five runs.

“I was just trying to make sure they didn’t score a lot, keep it close, because I knew Langston wasn’t going to give up much,” said Jacome, 24, who was acquired in a four-player trade with the New York Mets on July 21.

Langston had the same thoughts and was on target through five innings, but struggled in the sixth.

“[Jacome] pitched a great game,” Langston said. “The bottom line is he shut us down. I could see the pattern of the way the game was going that it wasn’t going to take many runs to win.”

Vince Coleman’s leadoff triple started the Royals’ sixth. After Langston struck out Tom Goodwin, Chris James followed with a run-scoring single past shortstop Damion Easley. And the Royals had the only run they would need.

“I felt I didn’t make bad pitches,” said Langston, who gave up eight hits with four strikeouts and one walk in six innings. “They just hit them. I’m not going to beat myself up about it. It’s part of the game.”

Chili Davis’ single in the fourth extended his hitting streak to 15 games, three short of his career best. With one out in the ninth, Garret Anderson, who struck out three times against Jacome, and Spike Owen hit consecutive singles off Montgomery, who then retired the next two batters to end the game.

“The kid pitched well,” Angel Manager Marcel Lachemann said of Jacome. “He was pretty impressive. . . . You expect to put the ball in play, but when a guy pitches that well, it’s not that easy to score runs.”

Lachemann couldn’t remember the last time the Angels were shut out. For the record, it was in a 2-0 loss to Oakland on May 2 at Anaheim Stadium.

“I knew it had been quite a while,” Lachemann said.

Langston said: “It’s been a long time. We’ve scored so many runs, but there are going to be games when you don’t score, and that’s when the pitching has to step up.”

Except for Rene Gonzales, Jacome had never faced anyone in the Angel lineup before Thursday.

So, he was asked, that meant he really didn’t know any better?

“I guess not,” he said, laughing.