ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Denny Bautista recorded his first career win in impressive fashion.

Bautista breezed through eight innings and Mike Sweeney drove in a pair of runs as the Kansas City Royals recorded a 6-2 triumph over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Acquired from Baltimore last June, Bautista made five starts for Kansas City in 2004, losing all four of his decisions. The 24-year-old Dominican Republic native obviously progressed during the offseason, limiting the Angels to one run and three hits in this one.

"The Angels are a very good team and I was just trying to throw the first pitch for a strike and if they hit it, then they hit it," Bautista said. "I feel so good about my first career win."

"Two words - just nasty," said Anaheim's Orlando Cabrera , who went 0-for-3 against Bautista. "Every first pitch was a strike. He had good velocity and great movement. All of his pitches moved."

Bautista (1-0) yielded just two singles and a double while striking out a career-high eight without a walk. The righthander also was impressive during spring training, going 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in seven appearances, including four starts.

"I got everything going," said Bautista, who has allowed just five runs in his last three major league starts. "I changed my mechanics in winter ball, and it helped. I was just throwing fastball inside, then I would work in my slider."

"Nobody knows this kid. I was very, very impressed," Royals manager Tony Pena said. "He threw a lot of first-pitch strikes, great curveball, change and slider. He was able to take what he did in spring training and bring it into the game tonight."

The Royals gave Bautista a 2-0 cushion in the second inning as Terrence Long delivered an RBI single and Ruben Gotay lifted a sacrifice fly. Calvin Pickering added a run-scoring base hit in the third.

Jeff DaVanon reached Bautista for a leadoff double in the fourth and went to third on a wild pitch before scoring later in the inning on Garret Anderson 's groundout, pulling Anaheim within 3-1. Following DaVanon's two-base hit, Bautista retired 14 consecutive batters.

In the fifth, Sweeney followed an RBI bunt single by Tony Graffanino with a run-scoring double and the four-time All-Star added another RBI two-base hit in the seventh to open a 6-1 cushion for the Royals.

"We don't have a powerful lineup, so we have to try and manufacture runs, and we were able to do that tonight," Sweeney said.

Angels starter Paul Byrd (0-1) was ineffective, allowing six runs - four earned - and nine hits in seven innings. The former Royal struck out four without a walk.

"I was happy with Paul's outing tonight," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "He threw good, but he didn't get the help behind him, which got him into trouble."