Angels Beat Royals With Cheese

Just when the Angels needed a little pick-me-up bouquet, the Kansas City Royals showed up at their doorstep Monday night, a welcome sight for a weary team coming off a three-game sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners and fading fast in the American League West.

The Angels got well soon.

Dallas McPherson and Orlando Cabrera each had three hits, Garret Anderson added a clutch defensive play, and the Angels shook the dust off their old one-two relief punch of Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez in a 4-3 victory at Angel Stadium over the woebegone Royals, who are 6-27 on the road this season.

Not since May 26 had Shields pitched the eighth and Rodriguez the ninth inning of an Angel victory, but Shields relieved wobbling starter Ervin Santana in the seventh and threw 1 1/3 perfect innings, striking out two, and Rodriguez struck out three of four in the ninth, including Mark Teahen with a runner on second to end the game, for his first save since May 30.

That helped the last-place Angels pull within 5 1/2 games of Texas, the first time since May 27 the Angels have gained ground on the Rangers with a win.

“It’s nice to get in there and get back to our old selves, me throwing the eighth and Frankie the ninth, like we’re supposed to,” Shields said. “If me and him are out there, it usually means we’re leading, and that’s our ultimate goal.”

A rash of blowout victories, sprinkled with several lopsided losses, had rendered Rodriguez moot this month -- his only two previous appearances in June were mop-up innings to gain some work -- and the closer was beginning to miss the adrenaline rush of his job.

“It’s been awhile since I felt that sensation,” Rodriguez said. “But it came back quick.”

For most of Monday night, it appeared there wouldn’t be a save situation for Rodriguez. Santana (6-3) breezed through six innings, giving up only a pair of fifth-inning singles.

But the right-hander disintegrated in the seventh, allowing a Reggie Sanders single, Matt Stairs’ two-run home run and a Shane Costa double to right open the inning.

Costa took third on Teahen’s grounder to second and scored on Angel Berroa’s single to left, pulling the Royals within 4-3, but Berroa got too ambitious on the basepaths, trying to stretch his hit into a double.

Anderson, the left fielder, scooped up Berroa’s hit near the line, spun and fired a perfect one-hop throw to second baseman Adam Kennedy to nail Berroa by about eight feet.

“They were down by a run and could have had the tying run in scoring position, but that was a great throw to second by G.A.,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We talk about how important defense is. That was an example right there.”

The fingerprints of McPherson, who could be in jeopardy of losing playing time because of the return of center fielder Darin Erstad, and Cabrera, the team’s hottest hitter this month, could be found on all three of the Angels’ run-scoring rallies.

McPherson followed Anderson’s leadoff single and Erstad’s two-out walk by lacing a run-scoring single to right off Royals starter Bobby Keppel for a 1-0 lead in the second.

Chone Figgins led off the third with a single, took third on Cabrera’s single to right and scored on Anderson’s sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0. Mike Napoli led off the fourth with a walk and scored on McPherson’s one-out double to right for a 3-0 lead, and McPherson scored on Cabrera’s two-out double to left to make it 4-0.

Cabrera is batting .447 (17 for 38) with nine runs and five runs batted in this month.

“He’s getting on base, scoring runs and driving runs in,” Scioscia said. “What more can you ask from a guy?”