(Sports Network) - It's been over a month since Angels starter Jered Weaver recorded a victory, but a meeting with the Mariners could change that in a hurry.
Weaver guns for his fifth straight winning decision over Seattle, which begins a three-game set this evening with hosting Los Angeles hoping to avoid a 13th loss this year in the season series.
The 27-year-old Weaver is winless in five starts since his last victory on Aug. 6, dropping each of his last four starts. After a tough-luck loss versus the Orioles on Aug. 29 in which he struck out 11 and allowed just one run over eight innings of a 1-0 setback, Weaver yielded three runs over seven innings in 3-1 loss in Oakland six days later.
The one run marked the first time in four starts that the Angels had scored in a game that Weaver had started. The righty is 11-11 with a 3.14 earned run average this year and 5-3 with a 1.60 ERA in 13 starts at home.
"We didn't get anything going on the offensive side to help make that game Jered's," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.
Run support might not be too much of an issue tonight for Weaver, who hasn't lost to Seattle since April 15 of last year and is 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA in three starts against them this year.
The Angels enjoyed a much-needed day off yesterday following Wednesday's 4-3 victory over the Indians in 16 innings. After Fernando Rodney blew a ninth- inning save, leading to the marathon, Jeff Mathis finally made Los Angeles a winner when his sac fly scored Torii Hunter.
The Angels snapped a five-game home losing streak and won for the second time in six games to avoid the three-game sweep. They stand a good chance at posting back-to-back victories for the first time since Aug. 10-11 given that they have won 12 of 16 over the Mariners this year.
Los Angeles is 49-24 versus Seattle since the start of the 2007 season, going 24-11 at home in the series over that time.
The Mariners come in having lost two of three to the Athletics to begin the week. They dropped Wednesday's rubber match, 4-3, as starter Luke French gave up all four runs over 5 1/3 innings.
"I keep talking about a big hit that puts the ballgame away. We didn't get it. Those things come back and bite you in the end," said Seattle interim manager Daren Brown.
Russell Branyan hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Matt Tuiasosopo added a solo shot in the second frame for a three-run lead the M's could not hold.
Ichiro Suzuki had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He is hitting .409 (18-for-44) in that span with eight multi-hit games and is 17 hits away from extending his own major league record of consecutive 200-hit seasons to 10.
David Pauley will try to snap a three-start losing streak this evening, a skid in which he has allowed four runs in each setback. The 27-year-old was tagged for seven hits and three walks over six innings of his most recent defeat on Saturday versus the Indians, falling to 2-7 with a 4.42 ERA this year.
The right-handed Pauley is 0-1 with a 7.84 ERA in two career meetings with the Angels. That losing decision came on Aug. 30 after he gave up three homers to Peter Bourjos, Bobby Abreu and Hideki Matsui -- all in the sixth inning.