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Weaver pitches Halos past Mariners

Jun 15, 2011 - 6:30 AM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Jered Weaver hurled his fourth career shutout and his second this season, as the Angels blanked the Mariners, 4-0, to take the second edition of a three-game series.

Weaver (8-4) scattered five hits and a walk while striking out six as Los Angeles won for the third time in four games, including the first two in this set.

Doug Fister (3-8) went seven innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out five as Seattle suffered its seventh defeat in 11 contests.

The Angels jumped out to an early lead with a four-run first inning. Erick Aybar led off the game with a double and came home on a Torii Hunter single. Two batters later, Vernon Wells reached first on a fielder's choice to put runners on the corners. Howie Kendrick and Russell Branyan followed with back- to-back RBI singles before Peter Bourjos' ground-rule double brought home Kendrick.

"Doug struggled in the first. Obviously, against Weaver you hate to spot them four runs early like that, but Doug Fister, he really dug deep and he threw the ball as we've seen him throw it those six innings after that," Mariners manager Eric Wedge said about his starter.

That would be all the offense they would receive, but it would also be all they would need behind Weaver.

The 28 year-old right-hander retired the first six batters he faced before getting into some trouble in the third. Mike Carp singled to lead off the inning and, after two quick outs, Ichiro Suzuki singled to put runners on the corners. But Brendan Ryan struck out swinging to end the inning.

Weaver allowed just one other baserunner -- a Jack Cust walk in the seventh -- before Suzuki doubled to lead off the ninth. He would not advance any further, though, as Ryan popped out to second, Justin Smoak flied out to center and Adam Kennedy fouled out to third to end the game.

"I think the early runs helped. He was able to pitch to contact a little more than his tendency's been when we hadn't been scoring runs, so the early runs helped him. Maybe his command wasn't as crisp as we'd seen in the past, but he made some pitches," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia about Weaver.

Game Notes

The win was the 4,000th in the history of the Angels franchise...Weaver improved to 11-4 against Seattle in his career...Suzuki has now recorded four consecutive multi-hit games...Suzuki is one stolen base shy of 400 in his MLB career and two shy of 600 in his pro career (199 in Japan).