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Lackey sharp as Angels blank Mariners

Aug 1, 2007 - 6:17 AM By Paul Lowenberg PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SEATTLE - John Lackey limited the Mariners to seven hits in his first shutout of the season as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim blanked the Seattle Mariners, 8-0, on Tuesday night.

Gary Matthews, Jr. homered twice and clubbed a pair of doubles and Orlando Cabrera homered and drove in four runs as the Angels snapped the Mariners' four-game winning streak and boosted their lead back to four games in the American League West.

Lackey (13-6) withstood a couple of early threats before settling down to defeat the Mariners for the second time this year. The All-Star righthander struck out five and walked three.

"For John, it's a big game every fifth day," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "That's his approach and that's why I think he's been so productive for his career."

It was Lackey's first complete-game shutout since July 14 of last season, when he dominated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Angels Stadium.

"I knew it was an important game and we needed a win so you might get up for it a little bit more," Lackey said.

Seattle starter Jeff Weaver (2-10), who has lost his last four starts, was not sharp, yielding six runs and seven hits while three walks and surrendering a pair of home runs in four innings.

The 30-year-old righthander, 2-4 since coming off the disabled list June 9, did not strike out a batter as he fell to 5-7 against his former team.

"It was definitely frustrating," Weaver said. "Obviously you want to keep putting up zeroes as long as you can, but they came back with a vengeance from yesterday, and they made me pay for trying to be too fine. It was just one of those games where maybe I put a little too much pressure on myself in that second inning to make perfect pitches and it backfired."

The Angels had hit only four home runs in their previous 22 games, but they connected for back-to-back blasts against Weaver in the second to take a 3-0 lead. After Casey Kotchman walked, Matthews drove Weaver's offering 417 feet to center for his first homer since June 17. Macier Izturis followed with a homer to right, his second of the year.

Jeff Mathis doubled and Weaver walked the next two batters to load the bases before Cabrera hit a broken-bat groundout to third that scored Mathis to push the advantage to 4-0.

Cabrera's two-run single in the fourth made it 6-0 and his seventh home run, off reliever Ryan Rowland-Smith, made it 7-0 in the sixth.

Matthews' second homer of the game came in the ninth off righthander Mark Lowe and marked his second multi-homer game of the season and third of his career.

"We made some pitches that he was able to really hit hard," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "We've got to do a better job of locating pitches to him. He just got too many pitches to hit."

The Mariners loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning, but were unable to score as Lackey got Richie Sexson to fly out to right.

Ichiro Suzuki drew a leadoff walk in the third and Jose Vidro followed with an infield single. But after Jose Guillen flied out, Lackey got Adrian Beltre to ground into a double play and end the Mariners' final threat of the night.

Lackey retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced before Jose Lopez singled with two outs in the seventh.