Angels complete sweep of the Royals

Torii Hunter has heard the rumblings about how he has lost a step, about how he didn’t really deserve the eighth straight Gold Glove Award he won last season, about how he is an “average” center fielder in the eyes of some of baseball’s new statistical gurus.

That may explain why Hunter seemed almost as angry as he was ecstatic after making a spectacular catch above the left-center field wall to rob Miguel Olivo of a potential tying ninth-inning home run and preserve the Angels’ 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Olivo led off the ninth with a drive toward the gap, but Hunter, after a lengthy run, timed his leap perfectly and gloved the ball about two feet above the wall.

Upon landing on the warning track, Hunter thrust his right arm toward the sky and hugged left fielder Gary Matthews Jr. Hunter pumped his fist several times and screamed at no one in particular, while fans began chanting his name.

“I want to let you all know that I’m still me,” Hunter said. “Come out here and test me. I still know how to play center field, man. I still feel like I’m one of the best in the game. That’s not being cocky. That’s confidence.”

Perhaps one of those fist pumps was for John Dewan, who, in his recently published “Fielding Bible,” wrote that Hunter “is well removed from his defensive prime,” and that the 33-year-old is “overrated” as a center fielder.

Dewan, who has formulated defensive metrics such as plus/minus runs saved, special aggregate fielding evaluation and ultimate zone rating, wrote that Hunter “still plays center field well,” but that some of his routes “have become problematic.”

His route to Olivo’s ball Sunday was problematic only for the Royals, who were swept in a three-game series by the Angels and are still smarting from Hunter’s decision to spurn a lucrative offer from Kansas City to sign with the Angels two winters ago.

“I don’t care what the numbers-crunchers say -- he still covers as much ground as any center fielder out there,” Manager Mike Scioscia said of Hunter, who has robbed players of eight homers over the last four years. “That catch was as good as it gets.”

How high above the wall was Hunter?

“I felt like I could have dunked a basketball. With two hands . . . over Shaq,” Hunter said referring to Shaquille O’Neal.

How pumped was he?

“I felt like a wide receiver did a slant over the middle, I was the free safety, and I took him out,” Hunter said. “It felt good.”

Matthews knows a thing or two about spectacular catches -- he has robbed six players of home runs since 2006 -- and he had a great view of Sunday’s web gem.

“The most important thing is timing the jump and calculating where the ball is going to end up,” Matthews said. “You’ve got to get to the wall fast and slow down a little bit when you’re ready to jump. That was a tremendous play. It’s a lot more fun making the catch, but it was pretty fun watching it too.”

After Hunter’s catch, the Royals put runners on first and second, but closer Brian Fuentes got David DeJesus to ground into a game-ending double play for his ninth save.

That made a winner of Scot Shields, the struggling reliever who struck out four in two hitless innings, by far his best outing of the season.

The Angels took advantage of reliever Jamey Wright’s throwing error on Howie Kendrick’s potential double-play grounder and Olivo’s dropped throw at the plate to score three runs -- two unearned -- in the seventh, turning a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 lead.

Jeff Mathis had the key hit, a two-run single to right field, and Chone Figgins drove in the go-ahead run with a safety squeeze.

But if not for Hunter’s catch, “it would be 4-4, and there’s no telling where we’d go from there,” said Hunter, who also forced Mike Jacobs at second on Alberto Callaspo’s one-hop flare to center field in the second.

“I didn’t get anything done with the bat, but if you can do something with your glove to help the team win, that’s a lot of fun,” Hunter said.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com