Angels roll a pair of sevens with victory over Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A week ago, the Angels had no idea who was going to pitch for them Saturday. The way they’re playing now, does it really matter?

Billy Buckner, making his first major league appearance in three years, allowed two hits in five shutout innings, and Hank Conger and Josh Hamilton hit home runs in a 7-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals that extended the Angels’ win streak to seven games.

Mark Trumbo keyed a four-run eighth with a two-run single, and relievers Dane De La Rosa, Scott Downs, Robert Coello and Michael Kohn each threw a scoreless inning. The Angels, who have outscored opponents, 54-18, during the streak, improved to 22-27. They were were 12 games under .500 on May 17.

“I look at that and think we’re not done yet,” Conger said. “We got things rolling, but when you look at the big picture, we need to continue our momentum to be in the position we want to be down the road.”

As much as the home runs — the Angels have hit a major league-high 34 of them in May — timely hits and productive at-bats have helped, the key to the streak has been pitching.

Starters have combined for a 1.76 earned-run average in seven games, allowing nine runs in 46 innings, remarkable considering the Angels have been without ace Jered Weaver and Tommy Hanson.

And an injury ravaged bullpen that looked woefully thin two weeks ago has deepened with the return of Sean Burnett and step-up performances from pitchers such as Coello, who hasn’t allowed a run in 81/3 innings of seven games, and De La Rosa, who has a 4.50 ERA in 23 games.

Buckner was the 21st pitcher to appear this season for the Angels — the club record is 29 pitchers used in 1996 — and the 10th to start.

Though he wobbled at times, walking three, hitting one batter and throwing two wild pitches (one on a pitchout), Buckner was effective. He escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam in the fifth by getting Chris Getz to ground into a double play to preserve a 1-0 lead.

“Four of the five pitchers today weren’t on the opening-day roster,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “I think we’re doing as well as can be expected when you get that deep into an organizational depth chart. A week ago, we weren’t sure who was going to start today, and we ended up piecing together a shutout.”

Though the Angels were hitless through five innings against Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie, they held a 1-0 lead after Mike Trout walked in the fourth, stole second, took third on an error and scored on Albert Pujols’ groundout.

Conger (sixth inning) and Hamilton (seventh) hit opposite-field homers to make it 3-0, and the Angels tacked on four runs in the eighth, a rally Conger and J.B. Shuck started with singles. Trout, Trumbo and Howie Kendrick knocked in runs, with Trumbo’s single extending his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games. The Angels scored five or more runs for the seventh straight game, only the third time since 2006 they’ve accomplished the feat.

“Confidence builds when you start to move in the right direction,” Scioscia said. “Right now, these guys feel good because we’re playing the type of baseball we hoped to play.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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