Angels wet and mild against lowly Royals

No need looking up averages, poring over matchups or even consulting horoscopes.

Want to know what the Angels are going to do? Check the weather.

Take Wednesday, for example. With both the temperature and a steady rain falling all night, the Angels also fell for the first time in five games, losing, 3-1, to the Kansas City Royals.

Not that it should have been surprising. The average game-time temperature in the Angels’ first nine road games was a chilly 53 degrees -- and they lost eight of them. Under warmer skies they’re 16-3.

And while Manager Mike Scioscia wouldn’t use the weather as an excuse for the loss, he suggested it might have been a reason.

“It was definitely affecting play,” he said. “It certainly made some plays more difficult.”

Royals left-hander Jorge De La Rosa also threw a chill over the Angels, who started the night having won 10 of their last 12 while averaging better than six runs a game over that span. Commanding a good fastball and mixing in a changeup and a breaking pitch, De La Rosa (3-2) scattered five hits over seven innings to win for the third time this season at Kauffman Stadium where he has an earned-run average of 0.82.

And the Royals -- the polar opposite of the streaking Angels -- were certainly in need of a hot performance having lost three in a row and seven of nine, leaving them with the worst record in baseball.

The Angels opened the scoring in the fifth when Erick Aybar hustled a low line drive to left into a double. Mike Napoli reached on an error, then Chone Figgins’ single scored Aybar. The Angels could have had more, but Orlando Cabrera popped out to center with two runners in scoring position to end the inning.

But that was about all the Angels could do against De La Rosa and a pair of Kansas City relievers.

“We weren’t able to get the key hit,” Scioscia said.

The Royals, meanwhile, were busy turning blown scoring opportunities into an art form. They got hits in each of the first seven innings, put at least two runners on five times and had men in scoring position on four occasions but they couldn’t push a run across on Angels starter Ervin Santana (2-4) until Esteban German cracked a three-run homer with one out in the seventh.

That ended a strange night for Santana, who gave up 11 hits, a walk and hit a batter yet still came within eight outs of a shutout.

“I felt good. Everything was good,” said Santana, who has lost eight of his last nine road decisions. “When a game’s close like that, one pitch, one mistake is going to be the ballgame.”

In this case the mistake was a 1-0 fastball that Santana tried to get outside only to have it run back across the plate, and German clobbered it for his first home run in 144 at-bats dating to last September.

“That was a bad pitch,” he said. “I’m going to keep pitching and one day it’s going to be my time.”

The Angels had a chance to come back when Reggie Willits led off the eighth with a double, his sixth hit in nine at-bats. But when reliever Brandon Duckworth bounced an 0-2 pitch to Cabrera, Willits broke for third and was thrown out easily.

“I made a mistake. It was stupid,” Willits said. “Whether I’m safe or whether I’m out, it was the wrong play to make. I really don’t have an excuse for it. My run pretty much means nothing at that point.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

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Big difference

Vladimir Guerrero went 0 for 4 Wednesday against the Royals. A look at what Guerrero has done this season while in the lineup during Angels’ wins and losses:

WINS (16)

*--* Batting average 431 (25 for 58) Home runs 7 Runs batted in 23

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*--* LOSSES (10) Batting average 162 (6 for 31) Home runs 1 Runs batted in 4

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