Los Angeles @ Seattle preview
T-Mobile Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 31, 2010 ) LA Angels 1, Seattle 3
The Los Angeles Angels have had the Seattle Mariners’ number this season, with 11 wins in 15 games, but the Angels also have had trouble winning series lately.
The Angels have lost five consecutive series and will try to avoid making it six when they meet the Mariners in the rubber match of their three-game series Wednesday night.
Los Angeles will send 23-year-old right-hander Trevor Bell (1-4, 5.07 ERA) to the mound against left-hander Jason Vargas (9-7, 3.53).
Bell is coming off his best outing of the season, allowing two runs in a career-high seven innings Friday against Baltimore. Still, he took the loss in a 3-1 defeat. Bell, who has never faced the Mariners, is 0-3 with a 5.33 ERA in five starts.
Vargas has struggled lately, going 0-2 with an 8.03 ERA in his last two starts.
But the Californian is 1-0 with a 1.71 ERA in three starts this year against the Angels. He took a no-decision in his last start against the Angels on July 18 despite allowing one run in 7 2/3 innings.
In Seattle’s 3-1 win over Los Angeles on Tuesday night, the bats were quiet – typical of when ace Felix Hernandez pitches.
Hernandez had about as good an August as any pitcher could, finishing 3-2 with an 0.82 ERA, the lowest in the majors. He had 51 strikeouts in six starts, the most strikeouts in the American League for the month.
Although Hernandez allowed three hits in seven shutout innings and saw his ERA fall to 2.38, he left in a scoreless tie. The Mariners have scored just 10 runs for Hernandez in his 10 losses.
Los Angeles’ Howie Kendrick hit a ground-rule double for an RBI in the eighth against Brandon League – the first run he has allowed in 16 appearances.
The Mariners quickly erased the lead in the bottom of the eighth when Michael Saunders had a sacrifice fly to tie the score. Adam Moore hit a broken-bat single for the go-ahead run and Josh Wilson followed with a single, scoring Casey Kotchman.
League ended up with the victory, his ninth, tying him with Washington’s Tyler Clippard for the most among relievers.
Kendrick and Alberto Callaspo each hit doubles, giving the Angels at least one extra-base hit in 34 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the American League.
On the injury front, Mariners reliever Shawn Kelley will have his right elbow examined in an exploratory surgery Wednesday. The right-hander could need another Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in 2007.