ANGELS NEARING .500 PLATEAU LUKEWARM ANAHEIM WINS THIRD IN A ROW ANGELS 3, KANSAS CITY 2.

Byline: Gordon Verrell Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The Angels reached the one-third pole of the 2001 season Saturday night with ... well, a rush.

The Angels' 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals in front of an Edison Field crowd of 26,469 was their third win in a row, just the third time all year they've had a streak that long.

Garret Anderson's two-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning drove in Darin Erstad to break a 2-2 tie.

Scott Schoeneweis scattered seven hits over eight innings to improve to 5-3, Troy Percival pitched the ninth for his 13th save and Tim Salmon hit his sixth home run.

The win got the Angels back to within two games of the elusive .500 plateau, where they haven't been for a month and a half, when they were 6-6.

``We're not going to pop any corks getting to .500,'' manager Mike Scioscia said.

``Our goal, as it has been all season, is to play the type of baseball it takes to win games. We did a good job of that (Saturday night). We didn't pound the ball, but we did enough things right to get a win.''

With it, the Angels climbed back into a tie with Oakland for second place in the American League West, which is precisely where they were a year ago after 54 games - with just one slight difference: the Seattle Mariners.

``They're still riding that wave,'' Scioscia said, noting his team is 16 games behind Seattle despite the Angels' longest winning streak in a month.

The Angels managed only five hits off Kansas City right-hander Chad Durbin (3-4), who struck out six, matching his career high, and walked only three.

But two of those walks proved harmful.

Troy Glaus walked to lead off the fourth, and, with one out, Anderson and Wally Joyner singled to drive in Glaus and tie the score 2-2.

The Angels didn't get another hit until Erstad singled with one out in the eighth.

After Glaus flied to center for the second out, and with Salmon at the plate, Durbin threw repeatedly to first to keep Erstad close to the bag.

``He had to do that ... he knew Darin was going to run,'' said Anderson, who was waiting on deck.

Finally, on the 2-2 pitch to Salmon, Erstad took off for second, making it for his team-leading ninth steal and continuing to third when catcher A.J. Hinch's throw was off line for an error.

Durbin then walked Salmon, which provided the lefty-hitting Anderson a bigger-than-normal hole on the right side at which to shoot.

``I wasn't trying to hit the ball in the hole,'' said Anderson, who did just that, nearly nailing Salmon with his crisp grounder that scored Erstad with the eventual game-winner, ``but it's definitely an advantage having it there.''

Schoeneweis (5-3) earned his second consecutive win since getting routed for a club-record 11 earned runs in just four-plus innings May 23 at Baltimore, working his way out of several scrapes along the way. He got the Royals in order just once, the eighth, then turned it over to Percival for the ninth.

``He's unbelievable,'' Schoeneweis said of Percival. ``It's lights out every time.''

Rey Sanchez had two of the Royals' eight hits, extending his hitting streak to 20 games, the third-longest streak in the majors this season.