Royals Leave Angels, Langston Breathless

This was supposed to be the breather portion of the Angels’ rugged early schedule, a respite from those draining duels against the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.

But after three games against the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals, the Angels are gasping for air.

The Royals had the Angels on the ropes again Saturday night, knocking Mark Langston around as if he was a batting-practice pitcher en route to an easy 7-3 victory before 18,888 in Kauffman Stadium.

Kansas City catcher Mike Macfarlane’s three-run home run highlighted a five-run second inning for the Royals, and leadoff batter Bip Roberts had three hits and two runs . . . by the third inning.

Kansas City ace Kevin Appier went the distance on a five-hitter with four strikeouts to raise his lifetime mark against the Angels to 10-4 with a 3.14 earned run average.

And the Angels, who won three in a row against the Indians and Yankees this week, have now lost three in a row to the Twins and Royals.

“I don’t have any answers for it,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “Sometimes the little extra edge is missing, but this is the big leagues, and you can’t take anyone for granted.

“I mean, the Twins, without Paul Molitor, Marty Cordova and Pat Meares, kicked the crap out of Seattle [Friday, 10-3]. You can never think it’s easy, because it’s not.”

Langston, starting on five days rest because of Friday’s off day, couldn’t have made pitching look any more difficult than he did Saturday.

Not only did he constantly leave the ball up in the strike zone, the seven-time Gold Glove award winner made a fielding error in the first inning that cost him a run.

“What a horrible job of pitching,” Langston said. “I couldn’t get the ball down in the strike zone--every pitch was up--and I couldn’t field my position. There’s nothing good about putting your team in a hole against a very solid pitcher.”

About the only good thing for the Angels was a three-hit performance by Tim Salmon, who had three hits in his previous 37 at-bats (.081) before his bloop single to center in the fourth.

Salmon, who was dropped from the cleanup spot to the No. 5 spot in the order, hit his second home run of the season, a solo shot in the sixth, and added a single and scored in the ninth.

“What a relief,” Salmon said. “Everyone says it’s the jam-shot bloop single that gets you out of a slump--and what do you know?--I got two more hits after that. I’m just relaxing more.”

The Angels’ problems in the cleanup spot continued, though. Dave Hollins, who was 11 for 27 (.407) in the previous seven games, struck out three times and was hit by a pitch batting cleanup Saturday.

“Did you see what happened to the guy in the No. 4 hole?” Salmon said. “The hottest hitter on our team goes down three times? Maybe it’s the curse of Chili Davis. Maybe he’s the only guy who can hit cleanup for us.”

Macfarlane bats eighth in the Royal lineup but seems more like a cleanup batter against Langston. The Royal catcher now has a career average of .321 (18 for 56) against Langston and stunned the Angel pitcher with his homer to right-center field in the second, a hit that ended an 0-for-17 slump.

“I can never remember him going opposite field,” Langston said. “He’s been a dead-pull guy. I was shocked when he went the other way on a pitch I thought was outside the strike zone.”

David Howard followed Macfarlane’s homer with a single to right, and the Royals loaded the bases on singles by Roberts and Tom Goodwin.

Angel second baseman Luis Alicea prevented an even bigger inning with a diving stop of Jay Bell’s grounder, but Howard scored on the groundout.

Langston walked Jeff King intentionally to load the bases, and Davis, the former Angel, followed with a bases-loaded walk to make it 6-0. Craig Paquette bounced into a double play to end the inning.

The Royals added their final run in the eighth when Bell homered off Angel reliever Darrell May, his fifth homer of the season.

Alicea tripled in the sixth and scored on Salmon’s homer, and Salmon scored in the ninth on Garret Anderson’s groundout.

King, the Royals’ first baseman, had a busy day defensively, fielding seven of the Angels’ 10 ground-ball outs.