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Ibanez homers twice to lead Mariners past Angels

Apr 12, 2008 - 7:18 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- In the first of 19 battles this season in what promises to be a tightly contested American League West race, the Seattle Mariners drew first blood.

Raul Ibanez homered twice and drove in three runs to lead the Mariners to an 8-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Friday.

Brad Wilkerson drove in a pair of runs and Kenji Johjima snapped an 0-for-23 slump with an RBI double in the eighth inning for Seattle, which lost 13 of 19 games to the Angels in 2007.

Ibanez, who also doubled and scored three runs, drove the first pitch he saw from Anaheim starter Jered Weaver over the fence for a solo homer in the bottom of the first and snapped a 1-1 tie with another solo blast in his second turn at the plate.

"That first ball that Raul hit was one of the furthest balls I've seen hit by a lefthander here," Mariners manager John McLaren said of Ibanez's 438-foot blast into the rightfield seats.

"I've been feeling pretty good at the plate and seeing pitches and I've been pleased with the way things have been going," said Ibanez, who lifted his batting average to .300 and now has four homers and seven RBI. "I don't want to overstate it too much, but today was one day."

The veteran outfielder is now 12-for-21 with four homers and seven RBI in his career against Weaver.

Mariners starter Felix Hernandez (1-0) allowed four runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings to earn the win. The 22-year-old righthander struck out seven and walked three.

"It was a great game," Hernandez said. "I had to battle and I was telling myself that we needed to win this game."

Hernandez began the season without allowing an earned run in either of his first two starts, but struggled at times with his command against the Angels, throwing just 68 of his 117 pitches for strikes.

"Felix did a nice job. He battled," McLaren said. "He's improving each time out. He's going to be among the elite of the league at some point."

Anaheim took a brief lead in the top of the sixth when Gary Matthews Jr. led off with a home run to knot the score at 2-2. After Hernandez struck out Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson doubled and moved to third on Torii Hunter's flyout before coming home on a groundout to forge a 3-2 lead.

Seattle tied it in the bottom half, when Weaver walked Richie Sexson with the bases loaded, and took the lead for good one batter later on Wilkerson's two-run single.

Weaver, who was lifted after Wilkerson's hit, was charged with five runs on four hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings.

Mark Lowe, part of the Mariners' bullpen-by-committee with All-Star reliever J.J. Putz on the disabled list, allowed a leadoff double to Guerrero to open the ninth, then retired the next three batters for his first major league save.

"It's a huge rush, knowing that your team is about to win a game and you are the one in there to close it out," the 24-year-old righthander said. "There's just something about the ninth inning. It's just a totally different feeling."

The Angels stranded 10 runners and saw their bullpen struggle, giving up three runs over the final two innings.

"We left a lot of guys on base tonight, a lot of them in scoring position," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We didn't do as good a job as we normally do in those situations. Our bullpen is strong. We have guys down there with good arms. We just need to get our feet on the ground. Tonight things just kept adding up."