Byrd Hunted by a Pecking Order

New Angel pitcher Paul Byrd developed a bit of a cult following in Philadelphia and Kansas City, where teenagers congregated in the upper deck on the nights he started, wearing feathers on their arms, rubber bird beaks and hats that looked like nests.

The 34-year-old right-hander was hoping to spark a similar phenomenon in Anaheim, but there was no visible Byrd’s Nest in Angel Stadium for his Angel debut Friday night. Only Boo Byrds.

By the seventh inning of the Angels’ 6-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals, when Byrd had given up back-to-back doubles to Tony Graffanino and Mike Sweeney, a good number of fans among the crowd of 39,167 began voicing their displeasure with Byrd, who signed a one-year, $5-million deal with the Angels in December.

Byrd retired the next three batters, but that merely put a decent ending on a mediocre outing in which Byrd gave up six runs -- four earned -- and nine hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking none.

“I understand the boos -- they pay a lot of money to see us play well, and tonight we didn’t,” Byrd said. “But it’s a long season. You don’t judge a team or an individual performance after four games.”

Byrd was no match for the Royals’ Denny Bautista, a 6-foot-5, 24-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic who is a second cousin of New York Met ace Pedro Martinez.

Bautista, merging potential with performance in his sixth major league start, dominated the Angels with a Pedro-like repertoire that included a 94-mph fastball and a wicked slider.

Bautista, who was 0-4 with an 8.49 earned-run average in a brief stint with the Royals last season, had a career-high eight strikeouts and no walks while limiting the Angels to one run and three hits in eight innings. He struck out several Angels on 82-mph sliders in the dirt and froze a few left-handed batters with back-door sliders.

“Two words -- nasty,” Angel shortstop Orlando Cabrera said, obviously still a bit woozy from the Bautista beating. “He’s ugly too, so that’s two words,” Cabrera added with a chuckle.

“Watching tape [of a previous start], he didn’t have the command he had tonight,” Cabrera said. “He was in the zone. Every first pitch was a strike. He had good velocity, great command and great movement. All his pitches were really good.”

Bautista’s only blemish came in the fourth, when Jeff DaVanon led off with a double, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Garret Anderson’s grounder to short. He retired 14 in a row after DaVanon’s double.

A few more starts like Friday night’s, and the Baltimore Orioles will be wondering how they ever traded the lightning-armed Bautista to the Royals last June 21 for journeyman reliever Jason Grimsley.

“There’s a number of young pitchers in our league with good stuff, and he’s certainly one of them,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We tried to work counts early, and he came right after us, throwing strikes. Then when we started swinging early in the count, he took advantage by expanding the zone.”

Scioscia thought Byrd pitched “much better than his line score shows.” Angel second baseman Chone Figgins’ fielding error paved the way for two unearned runs in the second, the Royals scoring on Terrence Long’s bloop single and Ruben Gotay’s sacrifice fly. Calvin Pickering’s run-scoring single in the third was a bloop hit.

Byrd gave up a one-out triple to David DeJesus in the fifth, and Graffanino dropped a suicide-squeeze bunt that eluded the diving Byrd’s glove by inches. Graffanino reached on the bunt and scored on Sweeney’s double for a 5-0 lead.

“Man, I’ll be seeing that bunt over and over in my sleep,” Byrd said. “The squeeze was a brilliant play. I missed that ball by an inch. ... I wanted to get off to a better start, but Bautista did a better job. You have to tip your cap to that guy.”