ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels moved to the brink of their third AL West title in four years.
Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-run homer, Garret Anderson had two hits and three RBI and Los Angeles beat the Seattle Mariners 9-5 Thursday night to clinch at least a tie for the division crown.
Los Angeles built its lead over the second-place Mariners to 9&189; games. The Angels will try to become the first team to lock up a division title this season when Joe Saunders takes the mound against former Angel Jarrod Washburn tonight in the second of the four-game series.
The game was interrupted by a shouting and shoving match on the mound between the teams after Mariners reliever Jorge Campillo threw a pitch behind Guerrero’s head in the sixth inning. Campillo, who earlier had given up Guerrero’s homer, was ejected. Seattle manager John McLaren argued the ejection and was tossed himself.
There apparently were no punches thrown. Angels starter Jered Weaver had hit Kenji Johjima with a pitch in the fourth inning.
Anderson doubled in a pair of runs and Howie Kendrick singled home two more during a five-run third inning against Ryan Feierabend as Los Angeles erased a 2-0 deficit. Juan Rivera singled home the fifth run.
Guerrero added his 26th homer in the fourth off Campillo after ducking a fastball over his head.
In the sixth, after another pitch sailed over him, Guerrero got up off the deck, pointed at Campillo and began walking to the mound. Seattle first baseman Ben Broussard quickly stepped in front of Guerrero to play peacemaker, then Los Angeles manager Mike Scioscia also latched onto the star, who never really came close to Campillo.
Meanwhile, players poured onto the field and came together at the mound, with some shouting and pushing before the umpires broke it up.
The Angels, who have led the West since May 9, have dominated the Mariners this year, winning 12 of 16 meetings and going 6-1 against them in Anaheim.
The victory was Scioscia’s 700th as Angels manager, against 595 losses since he took over in 2000.
Weaver (13-7) left with a 7-4 lead after five innings and won for the fifth time in his last six starts. He gave up nine hits, including Raul Ibanez’s 20th homer, a two-run shot in the fifth.
Feierabend (1-5) allowed five runs and eight hits in three innings. He walked one and struck out three.
Jose Guillen’s two-run double in the third gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead.
Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 13
games with an RBI single off Justin Speier in the ninth inning.
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