KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Gil Meche allowed two hits in seven innings, retiring 17 straight batters after Vladimir Guerrero’s two-run homer in the first and leading the Kansas City Royals over the Los Angeles Angels 5-2.

Meche (3-1), whose 2.23 ERA is third in the AL behind Oakland’s Dan Haren (1.60) and the Angels’ John Lackey (2.19), struck out six and walked one. Meche walked Reggie Willits in a 10-pitch at-bat right ahead of Guerrero’s ninth home run.

Only two Angels hit the ball out of the infield during his stretch of 17 straight batters retired, a streak that ended in the seventh when Guerrero reached on a one-out infield single that went off second baseman Esteban German’s glove.

Guerrero took second on an error by Ross Gload on Meche’s pickoff attempt, but Meche struck out Casey Kotchman and retired Erick Aybar on an easy grounder.

Brandon Duckworth and rookie Joakim Soria finished the three-hitter, with Soria pitching the ninth for his fifth save in five chances. The victory gave Kansas City a split of the four-game series.

Gload had the first four-hit game of his major league career, drove in two runs and scored three.

Gload tripled and scored in the second inning, had an RBI single in the fourth, a single in the sixth and an RBI double off Dustin Moseley that made it 4-2 in the seventh. Rookie Billy Butler then singled him home for his first major league RBI.

Jered Weaver (1-3) matched his career high with nine strikeouts but gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings. Weaver, who has a 5.12 ERA, lost to Kansas City for the first time in three decisions.

Guerrero had big first innings in the series, hitting a two-run double and his fifth career slam in addition to Thursday’s homer. He had 29 RBIs in 27 games.

Gload tripled leading off the second and scored Kansas City’s first run on John Buck’s sacrifice fly. Gload tied it 2-all in the fourth with an RBI single following Mike Sweeney’s double.

After singling in the sixth for his third hit, he stole second, took third on Billy Butler’s long fly ball and scored on Tony Pena Jr.’s single for a 3-2 lead.

Notes: The Angels placed INF Maicer Izturis on the 15-day DL, retroactive to April 30, with a sore right hamstring, and brought up Brandon Wood from Triple-A Salt Lake. It meant a day off for Orlando Cabrera, who had played in each of the first 28 games. … After beating the Angels 3-1 Wednesday night, Jorge De La Rosa has the best home ERA in the AL at 0.82.

AP-ES-05-03-07 1704EDT