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Defensive miscue allows Mariners to defeat Angels

May 19, 2011 - 11:02 PM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Torii Hunter's misplay of a flyball from Carlos Peguero in the ninth inning gave the Seattle Mariners a 2-1 win and a sweep of a two-game series against the LA Angels of Anaheim.

In the ninth with Scott Downs (1-1) on the mound, Jack Cust lined a hard single to third to leadoff the inning. A sacrifice bunt from Adam Kennedy and a groundout from Luis Rodriguez put Cust on third base.

Peguero then lofted a flyball to center that Hunter appeared to have a bead on, but he fell to the ground in front of the ball as he lost it in the sun and Cust scored for the win.

"I like the way that Peguero swung the bat the previous AB," said Seattle manager Eric Wedge. "It was a situation where you give a young man an opportunity to step up and he did, put up a good AB, hit the ball hard, just got under it a tad, but baseball gods were looking down on us today."

The play made a winner of David Pauley (2-0), who threw a scoreless ninth inning for the Mariners, who have won three of four. Chris Gimenez drove in the other run while Doug Fister gave up a run on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts over eight innings.

Dan Haren started for the Angels, who have dropped their past five games, and over eight innings he gave up one run on three hits with four walks and five strikeouts. Howie Kendrick went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

"It feels like we've lost 20 in a row, but really we're a game or two out of first place," said Haren. "We're lucky that no one has pulled away and we play every team 15 more times, still a long, long ways to go. We'll turn things around, we're too good of a ballclub to not, we just got to keep pitching like we're pitching and the offense will come around."

Kendrick hit his seventh home run on the season in the fourth to give the Angles a 1-0 lead.

Seattle, though, tied it in the fifth as Luis Rodriguez led off with a double, moved to third on Peguero's groundout and crossed the plate on Gimenez's sacrifice fly.

Chone Figgins led off the Seattle sixth with a single, but he was caught stealing after Justin Smoak struck out. The Angels left a man on base in the seventh.

In the eighth, Seattle had men on first and second with one out, but Figgins lined out to left and Smoak grounded out to end the inning.

Kendrick singled to leadoff the ninth, but was caught stealing and Pauley retired the next two batters to end the frame.

Game Notes

The Angels took 15 of 19 games against the Mariners last season...The Angels open interleague play at home against Atlanta on Friday...The Mariners play at San Diego for three games starting on Friday.