Still nothing shaking here

Erick Aybar had his head down as he ran onto the field with his Angels teammates Thursday, dashing across the middle of the infield and nearly colliding with Chone Figgins near second base.

You really couldn’t blame him. Twelve times he has started in the field this season and each time he has started at second. Thursday, however, he was in the lineup at shortstop with Figgins at second, part of a batting-order shake-up Manager Mike Scioscia hoped would spark a lineup that has been as punchless as Oscar De La Hoya’s sparring partners.

But while Aybar eventually found his way to his position, the Angels offense remained lost, bowing to Gil Meche and the Kansas City Royals, 5-2. The loss was their second straight to the lowly Royals, sending the Angels home with a 4-3 record on what was once a promising trip.

“I don’t look at that at all,” Scioscia said after a game in which the Angels had only three hits. “There’s no sense looking back and evaluating what you did last week or what you did two weeks ago.”

Especially if you’re any Angels hitter not named Vladimir Guerrero or Reggie Willits. In the four-game series in Kansas City the Angels scored 13 runs, eight of them driven in by Guerrero, and had 32 hits, a quarter of them by Willits. Take those two out of the lineup and the Angels batted .140 with four runs batted in against the Royals.

Take those two out of the lineup Thursday and the Royals would have pitched a perfect game since Willits (a single and a walk) and Guerrero (two-run homer, infield single, walk) were the only Angels to reach base.

“We had nothing going offensively,” Scioscia said.

The problem starts with Guerrero. Or more precisely, after him. Since Garret Anderson went down because of a sore right hip during Friday’s trip opener in Chicago, Scioscia hasn’t been able to find anyone to protect Guerrero.

He has tried Shea Hillenbrand and Casey Kotchman and they’ve gone a combined three for 24 (.125) with only one RBI batting behind Guerrero in the last six games.

It was Kotchman’s turn Thursday and he went hitless in four trips.

“Hitting, that’s going to come and go,” said Kotchman, who went 0 for Kansas City. “Whether you’re hitting behind Vlad or anybody else, they’re trying to get you out.”

And Meche (3-1) did a good job of that. After Willits drew a 10-pitch walk in the first inning, Guerrero followed with his ninth home run of the season just inside the foul pole in left field. Meche then retired the next 17 Angels before Guerrero’s infield single in the seventh. A two-out single by Willits and a walk to Guerrero in the ninth brought Kotchman to the plate representing the tying run, but Joakim Soria got him on a soft liner to second to end the game.

And with that, the Angels had wasted their second strong pitching performance in as many days -- this one by right-hander Jered Weaver, who matched a career high with nine strikeouts in six innings. But he couldn’t solve Ross Gload, who had four hits -- one more than the Angels -- scored three runs and drove in two.

Nor, as he pointed out afterward, can he solve his team’s scoring woes.

“I have nothing to do with the offense. My job is to keep runs off the board,” said Weaver, who has given up three runs or fewer in three of his four starts yet has won only once this season.

He’s confident both the offense and his record will turn around, however. “You look at our lineup, we’re going to do some damage,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time for everything to come together.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com