Appier’s Gem Cuts Angels’ Lead to Four

Angel center fielder Jim Edmonds gave an Anaheim Stadium crowd of 33,930 a thrill with a spectacular defensive play Friday night, but Kansas City ace Kevin Appier put an equally impressive chill on Angel bats.

The Royal right-hander continued his mastery of the Angels with a three-hitter to lead the Royals to a 5-0 victory and shrink the Angels’ lead in the American League West over Seattle to four games, their smallest cushion since July 21.

Appier, who was 2-0 with a 2.81 earned-run average in two previous starts against the Angels, struck out a career-high 13 and gave up only three singles, two of which didn’t leave the infield.

Mixing his fastball, curve, sinker and changeup, Appier (14-8) got five Angels on called third strikes. He struck out leadoff batter Tony Phillips four times.

Jim Abbott gave up 10 hits in 8 1/3 innings and fell to 10-8.

Edmonds’ play came during a semi-chaotic fifth inning, which featured Royal first baseman Wally Joyner wearing an Angel cap, Phillips, the Angel third baseman, covering first, and first baseman J.T. Snow running a Royal player back to third.

Confused? The Angels appeared to be, but they made it out of the inning with minimal damage.

With runners on first and second and no outs, Gary Gaetti chopped a grounder to Phillips, who tagged Joyner on his way to third. Joyner rolled to the ground and upended Phillips in the process, as hats and helmets flew.

Joyner, the former Angel, wound up with Phillips’ hat and put it on as he ran toward the dugout, not realizing it was an Angel cap until Phillips yelled at him. Phillips had the Royal helmet, and the two shared a chuckle.

Designated hitter Joe Vitiello, whose bases-empty homer gave Kansas City a 1-0 lead in the second, then drove a ball to deep center. But Edmonds, after a lengthy run, made a leaping catch about a foot or two above and behind the wall. He caromed off the fence, and his throw made it all the way to the pitcher’s mound, where Snow fielded it and ran Gagne, who had tagged from second and had visions of scoring, back to third.

Where was Phillips? While Edmonds’ throw came in, he had sprinted to first in an attempt to double up Gaetti, but the Angels had no play. Abbott then shattered Les Norman’s bat with a pitch, but Norman blooped it into shallow left for an RBI single and a 4-1 lead.

The Royals scored twice in the second, as Norman followed Vitiello’s homer with an infield single, advanced on a sacrifice and came home on Juan Samuel’s RBI single to center.

Kansas City added an unearned run in the fourth when Vitiello jarred the ball loose from Angel catcher Greg Myers’ mitt. Phillips had fielded Edgar Caceres’ bouncer to third and his throw to the plate had Vitiello beat by several feet. The Royals scored their fifth run on Greg Gagne’s ninth-inning sacrifice fly.

Seattle completed its 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox Friday just as the Angels took the field against the Royals, but the Angels were at least buoyed by this fact:

The Mariners and Texas Rangers, the two teams within striking distance of the Angels in the West, will play each other seven times in their final 14 games, including a season-ending four-game series at Texas.

“That’s outstanding,” Phillips said. “Those are the two teams trailing us, so if they can beat up on each other, we’ll be in pretty good shape. If they split, it would be great.”

After this weekend’s series, the Angels have three games remaining against Texas, two games against Seattle and seven against the Oakland Athletics.

“With everyone playing each other in our division and teams knocking each other off, it makes it tougher for teams to gain ground,” right fielder Tim Salmon said. “Hopefully that will be the case, but if we get our job done here, it doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere.”