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Ervin Santana pitched 7 1/3 innings for his 16th win of the season. For more Angels news and information, please visit Halos Heaven
With an off day coming up, the Angels have decided to shuffle their rotation, per Dan Woike of the Orange County Register:
The Angels will skip Trevor Bell’s next scheduled start because of Monday’s off day. Bell will work out of the bullpen with Joel Pineiro expected to rejoin to rotation after his rehab start Sunday for class-A Rancho Cucamonga.
Bell has started and relieved for the Angels, and is 2-5 with a 4.72 ERA this season in 25 appearances, including seven starts. He has pitched well in his last three starts, allowing two runs in each game, but only has one win to show for it.
Pineiro is 10-7 with a 4.18 ERA in 20 starts for the Angels, but he has been on the disabled list since July 22 with a strained left oblique.
Woike also noted that Scott Shields is expected to rejoin the bullpen soon, after experiencing left elbow tightness earlier this week.
Here are tonight’s lineups:
Mariners
Ichiro RF
Figgins 2B
Branyan DH
Gutierrez CF
Lopez 3B
Kotchman 1B
Moore C
Saunders LF
Wilson SS
Hernandez P
Angels
Callaspo 3B
Abreu LF
Hunter RF
Matsui DH
Napoli 1B
Aybar SS
Kendrick 2B
Mathis C
Bourjos CF
Santana P
(Sports Network) - The Mariners aren't going to the playoffs, but that won't stop Felix Hernandez from trying to extend an incredible run this evening.
Hoping to build on his case for the American League's Cy Young Award, Hernandez will attempt to even Seattle's three-game series tonight with the hosting Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Hernandez has yielded just one earned run over his last six starts, going 4-1 in that span with a 0.20 earned run average and hasn't allowed a run in each of his last two starts.
The right-hander hurled seven scoreless innings in a no-decision versus the Angels on Aug. 31, striking out eight with three hits and three walks, before besting the Indians on Sunday with eight frames of four-hit ball in which he fanned nine to up his season total to 209, two behind the Angels' Jered Weaver for the most in baseball.
"The guy's gone out there and dominated pretty much every team in the league and done it every fifth day, time after time. Pretty incredible season for him," said Russell Branyan after the Cleveland victory.
Poor run support might doom Hernandez's chances at the Cy Young as he is just 11-10 despite a 2.30 ERA that is tops in the AL. He is also just 0-2 with a 3.76 ERA in four starts versus the Angels this year.
Drawing the assignment for the Angels tonight is Ervin Santana, who can match his season career-high of 16 wins for the third time in his career. He first set the mark in 2006 and won another 16 games in '08.
Santana is 15-9 with a 4.02 ERA in 28 starts, winning two straight outings and seven of his last nine decisions. He defeated the Mariners on Aug. 30 after allowing two runs over 7 2/3 innings, improving to 2-1 with a 2.96 ERA in four starts versus Seattle this year.
The 27-year-old righty then made it two wins in a row on Sunday against Oakland, yielding three runs -- two earned -- on six hits and four walks over six innings.
Santana can pitch his club to a third straight victory tonight after Friday's 4-3 decision, made possible by Bobby Abreu's walk-off home run off Brian Sweeney in the 14th inning.
"I just wanted to make contact and get on base," Abreu said. "I was looking for a fastball down the middle and I made pretty good contact."
Jeff Mathis drove in two runs for the Angels, who were coming off a 4-3, 16- inning win over the Indians on Wednesday and won consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 10-11, the final two contests of a three-game winning streak.
Weaver was solid over eight innings in the no-decision, allowing one run and striking out six to grab the league lead from Hernandez.
Fernando Rodney, who blew the save to lead to Wednesday's marathon, failed to hold the edge again last night, allowing RBI hits to Jose Lopez and Casey Kotchman in the ninth inning.
Still, Seattle lost for the third time in four games.
"A tough loss. I'm proud of the way we battled back in the ninth inning," Mariners interim manager Daren Brown said. "We showed character but we didn't get a couple of hits that we needed."
Ichiro Suzuki went 1-for-6 to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He is 16 hits away from extending his own major league record of consecutive 200-hit seasons to 10.
The Angels have won 13 of 17 over the Mariners this year and are 50-24 versus Seattle since the start of the 2007 season, going 25-11 at home in the series over that time.
Santana, Hunter Lead Angels Over Mariners 7-4
Anaheim, CA (Sports Network) – Torii Hunter drove in four runs and Ervin Santana worked 7 1/3 solid innings to lead Los Angeles to a 7-4 win over Seattle in the middle meeting of a three-game set.
Hunter finished 2-for-4, while Hideki Matsui homered and walked twice for the Halos, who have taken the first two games of the series to improve to 14-4 against the Mariners this season.
Santana (16-9) yielded three runs on five hits while walking one and fanning five and Fernando Rodney came on to get the final out to earn his ninth save for LA, which has now won all six series between the two teams.
Felix Hernandez (11-11) suffered the loss after allowing seven runs — four earned — on six hits and three walks while striking out five for the Mariners, who have dropped three in a row and four out of five.
Ichiro Suzuki hit a three-run homer and extended his hitting streak to 12 games in defeat.
Trailing 7-3 going into the ninth, Seattle rallied against Kevin Jepsen and brought the tying run to the plate before bowing.
With two outs and nobody on, Adam Moore singled, moved to second base on indifference and stayed put when Michael Saunders walked. Josh Wilson then laced a base hit to left field to score Moore to trim the deficit to three and bring Rodney in from the bullpen.
The right-hander retired Suzuki on a line drive to third to end the game.
The Angels scored the first run of the game in the second, when Erick Aybar reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on Howie Kendrick’s two-out single.
Matsui’s solo home run in the fourth made it a 2-0 game before the hosts tacked on three more to widen the gap in the fifth.
The Halos loaded the bases with nobody out on errors by Hernandez and Jose Lopez and a Peter Bourjos bunt base hit. After Alberto Callaspo bounced into a force at the plate, Bobby Abreu grounded out to deliver Jeff Mathis, and Hunter stroked a two-run single to center to cap the rally.
Abreu’s walk put runners at first and second with one out in the seventh and spelled the end of the night for Hernandez, who had his shortest outing since June 8 and failed to last at least seven innings for only a third time in his last 18 turns.
Jamey Wright took over and was greeted by Hunter’s two-run double to right that made it a 7-0 game.
Suzuki’s three-run homer in the eighth cut the deficit to four and chased Santana from the game.
Santana matched his career-high in wins, established in 2006 and tied in 2008…He improved to 3-1 against the Mariners this season and 9-4 in 20 career starts. The 20 turns against Seattle are the most for Santana against another club…Hunter has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games…Suzuki has 20 hits during his streak and has compiled a major league-leading 185 on the season…Hernandez is 4-8 in 21 starts against the Halos and 13-8 in 29 career starts in September.
Sep 11 9:24p by Eric Stephen - 0 comments