Mariners and Angels Recap: Pitchers Continue To Give Up Hits

Saturday evening at Angel Stadium was a chance for Joe Saunders to pick up smoe momentum for the Angel's pitching staff after superb starts from Joel Pineiro and Jered Weaver.  The Mariners sent out (1-9) pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith who has had more than a difficult season in sixteen starts with a 5.89 ERA coming off a loss to the Yankees.  Rowland-Smith took the mound to face a counterpart known to give up runs in Joe Saunders.  Saunders (2-6 home record) recently lost in Chicago and had not lost to Seattle this year, and has a 8-1 career record versus the Mariners.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia decided to play on the poor record of Rowland-Smith by starting reserves Brandon Wood, Reggie Willits, and Kevin Frandsen.  Both pitchers outperformed expectations pitching scoreless innings to open the game.

A second inning smack of the bat for Smoak earned a double who moved to third on a base hit by lefty Langerhans bringing up former National catcher Bard who watched as a failed pick off attempt allowed Smoak to break for home and open the scoring 1-0 Mariners.  The error scored to Howie Kendrick brought Josh Bard back to the plate who struck out on an appeal to the first base official.

In the bottom of the second Mike Napoli and Juan Rivera quickly grabbed back to back hits with no outs.  Kevin Frandsen delivered an RBI single to tie the game.  Brandon Wood got on base on Chone Figgins error, and Reggie Willits delivered the fourth single to drive in two runs and make it 3-1 Angels.  Wood scored on a wild throw to advance the lead 4-1 on a Jack Wilson error before the inning ended.

A base runner was stranded in the third by Seattle as Figgins hit into an inning ending double play. Napoli pounded his 15th home run of the year.  Troubles continued for Seattle as Kevin Frandsen drove in Juan Rivera.

An RBI double from Lopez struck back at Joe Saunders in the fourth inning (6-2 Angels). A Milton Bradley base hit added a run followed by hits leading to a Josh Bard RBI to make it 6-4 Angels before the Mariners would end the inning by hitting into a double play.

Hits continued to flow freely with Howie Kendrick and the Angels put runners at the corners as Ryan Rowland-Smith was knocked out and Torii Hunter took the plate to face reliever Chris Seddon who was recently called up from AAA Tacoma. A fielders choice allowed Kendrick to be tagged out at home and two outs.

A strong performance by Seddon kept the game at 6-4 Angels until the 6th inning when Justin Smoak blasted his second home run of the series bringing the game to 6-5 Angels.

The attendance of just around 42,000 had little to cheer about since the early game production as the Angels failed to take advantage of Reggie Willits at second base to end the sixth inning.

Kevin Jepsen (1-1, 4.35 ERA) came in to pitch the 7th inning and gave up a home run after nearly hitting Josh Bard to tie the game at 6-6.  Joe Saunders was no longer involved in the decision of the game after Bard's second homer of the year.

Juan Rivera broke the silence of the home crowd with his first home run in over a month to knock out Sweeney 7-6 Angels.  The Mariners would face Fernando Rodney in the 8th getting Lopex to third base with two outs who struck out Smoak to end the inning. 

The Angels were unable to add on giving Seattle a chance to take the lead in the 9th inning. Brian Fuentes was brought in to close the game and face the bottom third of the Mariner batting order.  A double play and a strike out would finish the 50th win of the season for the Angels.

A 12:35 PT start is set for Sunday to finish this series with Ervin Santana taking the mound for the Angels.  Angel Warmup with Jeff Biggs and Jason Brennan starts at 11:30 on AM 830, KLAA.