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Washburn, Mariners shut out Angels

Sep 22, 2007 - 5:31 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim will have to wait another day to try and clinch the American League West.

Former Angel Jarrod Washburn pitched seven scoreless innings and Jose Guillen - also a former Angel - had three hits, including a home run, to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 6-0 victory in Anaheim on Friday.

Washburn (10-15), who pitched for the Angels for the first eight years of his career, snapped a personal five-game losing streak with one of his best performances of the season. The veteran lefthander gave up five hits with no walks and struck out four.

"This was probably the best game I pitched in this stadium ever, and got a good win today," Washburn said.

With the win, the Mariners prevented the Angels from clinching their third division title in the last four years. Anaheim (91-63) still holds a magic number of one over Seattle (82-71) to officially lock up the AL West, and host the Mariners for two more games over the weekend.

"I didn't approach this game any different, but I didn't want them to clinch it against me," Washburn said.

Adrian Beltre and Jose Vidro each drove in two runs for the Mariners, who beat the Angels for the first time in their last five contests.

"Just kept them from clinching one more day," Guillen said. "It's going to happen, just a matter of when."

Seattle scored their first run in the top of the fourth inning when Guillen doubled and scored on Beltre's RBI single.

The Mariners added four more runs in the top of the sixth off Angels starter Joe Saunders (8-4). Beltre ripped an RBI double to center to score Jose Lopez, who led off the inning with a single. Vidro followed with a two-run single to center and Jamie Burke added an RBI single two batters later, to make the score 5-0.

"I just didn't have my best stuff from the start," Saunders said. "I really wanted to pull this game out and clinch it, but that just means we have to come out tomorrow and get the job done."

Guillen added his 21st home run of the season to lead off the top of the eighth and cap the scoring.

Brandon Morrow pitched a perfect eighth and ninth inning to complete the shutout.

Saunders, who pitched six scoreless innings against Seattle on April 20, went 5 2/3 innings and gave up five runs on nine hits.

"He (Saunders) was just missing with the location of his pitches and just couldn't get into a good groove," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.