Kansas City, Mo. ? Los Angeles had three hits and one big gift from Kansas City’s bullpen.

With the Texas Rangers closing fast in the AL West, the Angels will take any win they can get.

Jered Weaver allowed one run over seven innings and Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run single in the eighth inning off Kansas City’s beleaguered bullpen, lifting the Angels to a 2-1 victory over the Royals.

The linescore may not have looked right — the Royals had 11 hits, the Angels three — but the result sure did.

“That’s the funny thing about baseball: You’re going to win some games when you give up a bunch of hits and we don’t get very many, but it’s all a matter of the Ws and losses,” said Weaver, who allowed nine hits to set a new career high in wins. “We were able to pull it out and it was a good win.”

Weaver (14-5) did his part, allowing three hits to Mike Jacobs, Alberto Callaspo’s run-scoring triple in the fourth and not much else to keep pace with Tejeda.

Kansas City’s right-hander allowed a hit in 5 1/3 scoreless innings, then had to watch another bullpen meltdown.

The Royals walked eight in innings 6-8 — three by Jamey Wright (1-5) — and twice dodged jams before Guerrero came through with the run-scoring single in the eighth. Brian Fuentes made sure the gift held up, working the ninth for his 38th save in 43 chances to keep the Angels 3 1/2 games ahead of the Rangers.

“There weren’t too many balls that we hit hard,” manager Mike Scoscia said. “One thing did, though, if you look at some of the little things we were starting to work counts and take what they were giving us.”