Mariners slugfest too much for the Halos

With the Red Sox out of Seattle the Mariners were looking to have better success against their American League West rival. Safeco Joe Saunders took to the mound looking for his first win against his former team and looked to win his third game in a row. Saunders had an easy start to his night as he threw 15 pitches in the first inning. After Brad Miller grounded out Michael Saunders singled up the middle. Raul Ibanez continued his amazing season as he lined the ball into right center field that allowed Michael to score and on the relay to home Ibanez was thrown out trying to extend his double into a triple, so the Mariners took the 1-0 lead once again. Safeco Joe got into a jam in the top of the second inning, things went a little south after Joe gave up doubles to both Mark Trumbo and Alberto Callaspo. Joe caught a break on the second double as Justin Smoak couldn't catch the pop out, when the ball finally landed Trumbo tagged up from second and got in safely to third.

Safeco Joe got out of the inning by striking out Chris Iannetta and Collin Cowgill, so the Angels left both runners on and Joe escaped without surrendering a run. Kyle Seager lead off the bottom of the second by extending both his hitting streak to 13 games and the Mariners streak of hitting a homerun in consecutive games to 20 with his 15th homerun of the year. Thanks to Seager's homerun the Mariners took the 2-0 lead after two innings. The Mariners opened up a can of whooping in the bottom of the fourth inning as Ibanez lead things off by sending his 24th homerun of the year into the Hit It Here Café, his homer measured an impressive 438ft. Kendrys Morales singled up the middle and following that Seager drew an eight pitch walk. After Smoak flew out for the first out of the inning Mike Zunino put the Mariners up 4-0 with an RBI single to left, next Dustin Ackley hit a perfect ground ball into center field that allowed Seager to come in and score to put the Mariners up 5-0.

After Ackley's single manager Mike Scioscia had seen enough and relieved Jerome Williams and brought in Garrett Richards to try and stop the bleeding. On only the second pitch Richards threw one in the dirt that bounced behind the plate and allowed Zunino to score and Ackley moved up to second. Richards recovered and struck out Brendan Ryan and Miller to end the inning, so after four innings the Mariners had a comfortable 6-0 lead. Safeco Joe kept the Angels at bay by not surrendering a run for the rest of his start. Saunders threw seven shutout innings and struck out 5 batters. Saunders had 101 entering the seventh inning and finished his night off with an eight pitch 1-2-3 inning. Ibanez added another run for the Mariners in the bottom of the seventh inning by hitting his second homerun of the night, Morales followed up Ibanez' homerun with a homerun of his own so the Mariners took the 8-0 lead.

Danny Farquhar came in the top of the eighth inning. Farquhar's relief appearance went south very quickly, the first batter he faced was Erick Aybar and lined one to Seager at third and thanks to a bad bounce Seager couldn't handle the ground ball so Aybar legged out the infield single. Mike Trout then tripled home the Angels first run of the game and after a mound visit Albert Pujols singled home Trout to put the score at 8-2. After Farquhar struck out Howie Kendrick manager Eric Wedge decided to bring in a left hander to throw to Josh Hamilton. Lucas Luetge came in and threw only two pitches and gave up a double to Hamilton after that Wedge made another pitching change to try and get out of a potential disastrous inning. Yoervis Medina came in and got the final two outs but allowed the third run to come in and score. Medina would come back out in the ninth and got a 1-2-3 inning to finish the game off.

NOTES: The Mariners put their record to 41-52 and Joe Saunders put his record to 8-8. Tomorrow Felix Hernandez will take the mound and go against Jered Weaver. Hernandez does not have a great record when going up against Weaver as he is 1-6 when pitching against Weaver. Weaver will look to win his third game in a row.