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Angels complete sweep of Mariners behind Weaver

Aug 30, 2007 - 7:10 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Jered Weaver continued the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's dominance of the Seattle Mariners in impressive fashion.

Weaver scattered seven hits in a career-high eight innings and Vladimir Guerrero and Jeff Mathis each homered to help the Angels to an 8-2 victory over the Mariners on Wednesday and a sweep of their three-game series.

Garret Anderson collected four hits and Kendry Morales added three for the Angels (79-54), who extended their winning streak to four games and expanded their lead over the Mariners (73-58) in the American League West Division to five games. With the triumph, Anaheim improved to 11-4 against Seattle this season.

The Mariners, who have lost five in a row, fell into a tie with the New York Yankees (74-59) for first place in the AL wild card standings. New York posted a 4-3 victory over Boston on Wednesday night.

"It was a very frustrating series," Mariners manager John McLaren said. "We ran into an extremely hot Angels team. We just couldn't get anything going. Good pitches, bad pitches, they hit everything we threw up there."

Weaver (10-6) won for the fourth time in his last five decisions, allowing two runs - one earned - in the longest outing of his brief career. The lanky righthander struck out five without walking a batter, throwing 70-of-100 pitches for strikes.

"To get eight innings from Jered against a good offensive club is big," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He threw some very good changeups. I thought he commanded the outside corner well against lefties. I thought he had a great game plan. He followed it, and he and (catcher) Mathis did a great job out there."

Weaver claimed he was beginning to feel like the pitcher he was last year, when he went 11-2 as a rookie.

"I was pumped up and ready to go for the start," Weaver said. "The last couple of starts, I've kind of felt like where I was last year. I've been working real hard with the medical staff, trying to get my shoulder back in shape."

Guerrero continued his season-long hot hitting against the Mariners, going 2-for-5 with a solo homer and two runs scored. In 14 games vs. Seattle this year, the slugger is hitting .500 (29-for-58) with five blasts and 17 RBI.

Mariners starter Felix Hernandez (10-7) - who had won his previous four decisions - was not sharp, giving up six runs and a season-high 13 hits in seven-plus innings. He did not walk a batter but uncorked a pair of wild pitches while striking out three.

"It was a tale of two pitchers," McLaren said. "Felix threw the ball extremely well at times, but then he left some balls out over the plate. To me, they looked very comfortable up there off him."

In falling to 0-3 lifetime against Anaheim at Safeco Field, Hernandez ran into trouble right away, giving up two first-inning runs on four singles. Gary Matthews Jr. led off with a base hit, took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on Orlando Cabrera's single.

Anderson and Morales delivered run-scoring singles around a strikeout to open a 2-0 lead.

Seattle got back a run in the second, when Adrian Beltre hit a leadoff single, stole second, took third on Mathis' throwing error and scored on Ben Broussard's groundout.

Mathis atoned for his miscue with a solo homer in the fourth, giving the Angels a 3-1 advantage. But the Mariners responded with a run in the bottom of the inning on Beltre's sacrifice fly.

But Guerrero's leadoff blast - his 22nd of the season - into the Mariners' bullpen in left field in the fifth restored Anaheim's two-run lead.

The Angels chased Hernandez in the eighth. Anderson opened the frame with a single and advanced on a wild pitch before scoring on a base hit by Maicer Izturis.

After Morales singled, Hernandez was relieved by George Sherrill, who yielded an RBI grounder by Casey Kotchman. Seattle second baseman Jose Lopez attempted to throw out Izturis at the plate but was too late.

Anaheim completed the rout with two runs in the ninth. Cabrera, Guerrero and Anderson began the inning with singles to load the bases before Rick White retired Izturis and Morales.

Lefthander Ryan Rowland-Smith came on but was ineffective, issuing consecutive walks to Kotchman and Howie Kendrick to force in runs.

"I think they just flat-out beat us," Beltre said. "(Our) bats went to sleep, and they took advantage of that. They beat us, straight up, but there's nothing we can do now. Just move forward and try to play better ball in the next five weeks of the season."