SEATTLE — It took the Mariners seven tries and nearly two months to beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for a second time last season, and it wasn’t until Aug. 1 that the Seattle clinched a series victory against last season’s American League West champs.
With Saturday’s 8-3 victory over the Angels in front of 34,963 at Safeco Field, the Mariners had already accomplished both of those things before 9 p.m. on April 12.
Today, the Mariners will send Erik Bedard to the mound to try for a series sweep of the team that beat them 13 times in 19 games last year.
“It’s great, they had our number last year,” said designated hitter Jose Vidro, who was 2-for-4 with two RBI singles after going two for his past 20 before Saturday. “I know it’s early, it’s the first series. We’ve still got 17 games to go, but they had our number last year. They really gave us a hard time, especially at the end when we were trying to make it to the playoffs. That’s in the past. This year we feel like if we want to do something, we have to beat them. Right now it’s only two games, but we feel good about what we accomplished because last year they really kicked us all the way to the end.”
The Mariners won with one of their best offensive performances of the season, solid defense, and a strong eight-inning outing from Carlos Silva, who held the Angles to three runs to improve to 2-0. Silva threw strikes all night and relied on his defense to make outs. He didn’t record a strikeout, gave up 11 hits, walked one batter, and was helped by three double plays. Strangely Gary Matthews Jr. grounded into all three of them, and all were of the 4-6-3 variety.
Silva also got help from his defense in the second inning when Ichiro Suzuki threw a strike from center field to Kenji Johjima, who blocked the plate and tagged Howie Kendrick for the inning-ending out.
“Silva was huge,” said Mariners manager John McLaren. “That’s Silva; he gives up some hits but he makes the pitch when he has to. He’s such a pro.”
Though he didn’t need all of it, Silva got plenty of run support from his team’s offense, which recorded 15 hits. The Mariners went ahead 2-0 in the first with a pair of unearned runs. After Jose Lopez reached on an error, Raul Ibanez continued his torrid hitting from Friday night, driving in Lopez with a triple. Two batters later, Vidro added an RBI single.
The Angels tied the game in the fourth on a two-run Casey Kotchman home run, then went ahead the next inning when Matthews Jr. grounded into a double play with runners on first and third.
Seattle answered right back in the bottom of the fifth, scoring three runs, all with two outs. Adrian Beltre started the rally with a double that left fielder Garret Anderson nearly caught, and Vidro followed with his second run-scoring single. Richie Sexson followed with a two-run home run to dead center that gave his team the lead for good.
Sexson received loud cheers for his home run, but only two innings earlier he was booed after popping up with the bases loaded and one out. Despite the hot and cold reception he sometimes gets at home, Sexson said he has no animosity toward the fans.
“It’s nice to do something good at home,” said Sexson, who raised his average to .244 with two hits. “They want me to be good. I’ve never had a beef with anything. I know they just want me to do well and they’re rooting for me, so I didn’t find it odd that they were cheering for me or anything. I think they like me as a guy and they just want me to do good, and when I do good they’re going to cheer.”
Ibanez, who had two solo home runs and an RBI double in Friday’s win, performed a crowd-pleasing encore Saturday in the form of an RBI triple and a two-run homer that blew the game open in the eighth. Ibanez, who nearly missed another home run with a fly out to the wall in the fifth, has five extra base hits — a triple, a double and three home runs — and six RBI in the past two games.
“Really I’m just trying to see it and hit it,” he said. “I’m trying to keep it as simple as possible. Just trying to see it and hit and put a good swing on it.”
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