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Mariners-Angels Preview

Sep 9, 2009 - 6:48 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Seattle (72-67) at Los Angeles (82-55), 10:05 p.m. EDT

The Los Angeles Angels have to be encouraged with how Jered Weaver has thrown the ball in his last two starts. It's similar to how he usually pitches at home against the Seattle Mariners.

The AL West-leading Angels try to improve to 6-0 all-time at home with Weaver on the mound against the Mariners when the division rivals continue a three-game set Wednesday night.

Weaver (14-5, 3.79 ERA) pitched six scoreless innings in a 4-3 loss to Oakland on Aug. 29 and earned a 2-1 win at Kansas City on Friday by allowing one run in seven innings.

The right-hander is 4-0 with a 2.73 ERA in five home starts against Seattle (72-67), not allowing a run in 13 innings in winning the last two. He yielded three hits over seven innings April 26 in an 8-0 victory over the Mariners in Anaheim, improving to 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in two overall starts this year against them.

One reason for Weaver's success is the way he has pitched to Mariners superstar Ichiro Suzuki, who has just seven hits in his last 33 at-bats against him for a .212 average.

Los Angeles (82-55) opened this series with a thrilling 3-2, 10-inning victory Tuesday. Erick Aybar singled with two outs to drive in Bobby Abreu with the winning run for the Angels, who have won four of five.

"If you look at Erick, he's grown as a player," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's not intimidated by any situation out there, whether it's offense or defense. He's just going to think about making plays and not mistakes."

They lead the Rangers by 4 1/2 games in the AL West, with seven games still to play against each other.

"We've got a ways to go," leadoff hitter Chone Figgins told the Angels' official Web site, "but it's been a pretty good year so far. We have to keep on pushing now, take it to the finish line."

The Mariners fell to 9-8 against the Angels this year with their third straight loss. Mike Sweeney hit a tying solo homer in the ninth inning off struggling closer Brian Fuentes.

Fuentes suffered his third blown save in his last 12 chances, and has an 8.44 ERA over his last 15 appearances.

Suzuki went 0 for 5, snapping his seven-game hitting streak and leaving him five hits short of 200 for the ninth consecutive season.

Seattle's Ian Snell (4-1, 4.89) will try to win five straight starts for the second time in his career. He accomplished the feat May 20-June 20, 2006, with Pittsburgh.

The right-hander went 0-1 with an 8.78 ERA in his first three starts after being acquired by Seattle before posting a 2.49 ERA in winning his last four. Snell gave up three runs over five innings Thursday in a 107-pitch outing in a 7-4 victory at Oakland.

His lone appearance against the Angels came June 23, 2007, when he gave up five runs over six innings in a 10-1 loss with Pittsburgh.