Homers Pace Mariners Again to Victory Over Angels

Angels starting pitcher Jon Garland allows 12 hits, six runs in five-plus innings.

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SEATTLE - In their effort to convince the Angels they're a legitimate threat to the reigning American League West titlists, the Mariners are making some compelling arguments.

In the land of heavy lumber, the Mariners hauled it out again on Saturday night and bopped the dazed Angels over the heads with eight runs for the second straight game.

This 8-3 decision behind free-agent import Carlos Silva at Safeco Field featured booming homers from Richie Sexson and Raul Ibanez in a 15-hit assault.

"It's important for us to get to some of our arms in the bullpen," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They've swung the bats well, and we haven't been able to do that."

If Francisco Rodriguez gets into Sunday's series finale matching Erik Bedard against Joe Saunders in a duel of southpaws, it will be the first time in six days the closer has made an appearance.

His bothersome ankles improved, K-Rod has been available the past two nights, but the Mariners made the ninth inning a non-issue with their bats.

Absorbing the brunt of the attack on Saturday night, Jon Garland didn't get enough help from his defense. Two errors by the Angels, after they'd committed just four in the first 11 games, made three of the six runs yielded by Garland in five-plus innings unearned.

"He definitely got behind in some counts and had trouble putting guys away," Scioscia said. "He didn't have great command of his offspeed stuff. He got too fine, but his stuff was OK. I don't think he pitched as poorly as his line score."

Casey Kotchman, Howard Kendrick and Erick Aybar tried to keep the Angels in the game with three hits each, and Chone Figgins continued to scald with a pair of singles raising his average to .405.

Kotchman homered (his third), doubled and singled. Kendrick (.469) doubled and singled twice, and Aybar -- strengthening his bid for the regular shortstop job -- had three singles.

"We hit some balls hard with guys in scoring position," Scioscia said, the Angels now 4-for-22 in the series with runners at second and/or third. "We need to be better than that, and we will. We're not firing on all cylinders."

Protecting a one-run lead, Garland (1-2) got the first two outs of the fifth before Adrian Beltre doubled off Garret Anderson's glove in left. After Jose Vidro's RBI single tied it, Sexson launched a 2-1 fastball over the wall in center for a 5-3 lead. It was Sexson's second homer of the year.

"Richie's really into it," Mariners manager John McLaren said of his big first baseman, trying to rebound from a disastrous 2007 season that included a .205 average. "He wants to win, wants to do well. He's got his game face on. He's determined. We've been seeing this since Spring Training.

"Usually, he's not that big an April hitter. That's very positive. He's got a chance to hit the ball out of the park every swing, and that's huge."

Ibanez, with three homers in the series and five for the season, seems to be doing precisely that.

"Raul is pretty well locked in," McLaren said. "We're starting to come around with the bats."

Garland fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, both runs unearned when a fielding error by Kendrick at second preceded Ibanez's RBI triple and Vidro's RBI single.

Kotchman, thrown out by Ichiro Suzuki at home in the second while trying to score on Kendrick's single, homered to right to tie it in the fourth after Torii Hunter was hit by a Silva pitch.

Singles by Aybar and Chone Figgins produced the go-ahead run in the fifth when Gary Matthews hit into a double play. It was the second of three 4-6-3 double plays at Matthews' expense -- the second time in Angels history a player has done that. Chad Curtis grounded into three double plays in Chicago against the White Sox in 1993.

"He found the first baseman with a bullet, found the second baseman with a bullet," Scioscia said of Matthews. "He rolled over on a couple, but he still hit them sharp. Two of those three double plays were bullets -- five feet either way, and we had a chance to break it open.

"It just happens. Gary will bounce back."

Getting his first start of the year in center with Hunter (sore left big toe) in the designated hitter role, Matthews overran Ichiro's single to center in the sixth, his error allowing Yuniesky Betancourt to score from first.

After Garland endured a second straight rocky outing -- 12 hits, six runs (three earned) -- Darren O'Day worked two scoreless innings in another strong relief effort. Jason Bulger was tagged by Ibanez with a two-run blast in the eighth.

The Mariners came into the series talking about making a statement, and Ibanez is providing the exclamation points.

Story by: Lyle Spencer

Courtesy: MLB.com

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