Shoemaker, Angels slow Mariners
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Matt Shoemaker surrendered five hits in seven innings, Yunel Escobar had three hits and scored two runs, and the Los Angeles Angels defeated the Seattle Mariners 6-4 at Angel Stadium.
Los Angeles (51-70) won for only the second time in their past 14 games. The Angels remain in last place in the AL East, trailing the Oakland Athletics by a game.
Shoemaker (7-13) lowered his ERA to 4.14 with the win, his first in three decisions against Seattle this season. He gave up two runs, walked two and struck out five in a 97-pitch outing.
The Mariners (64-56) could only manage a split in the four-game series, and they fell three games behind the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles in the AL wild-card race.
Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma (14-8) allowed six hits and three runs (two earned) over seven innings. He walked one and struck out two.
The Mariners cut the margin to 6-4 in the ninth inning on a two-run home run by Mike Zunino off reliever Fernando Salas. Zunino hit his seventh homer of the season after Adam Lind's one-out single.
The Angels opened the lead to 6-2 with three runs in the eighth. Albert Pujols lined a two-run double after Escobar doubled to lead off the inning and Mike Trout was intentionally walked. Jefry Marte grounded a pinch-hit single to left field three batters later to score Andrelton Simmons to conclude the rally.
The Angels extended their lead to 3-1 on a solo homer by Jett Bandy in the fifth inning. Bandy lined a slider from Iwakuma into the lower left field stands for his eighth home run of the season.
Seattle took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Robinson Cano's 27th home run of the season. Cano hit the first pitch he saw from Shoemaker, a 93 mph four-seam fastball, into the right-center-field stands. Cano has a major-league-leading 10 first-pitch homers this season.
Los Angeles scored two runs, only one of them earned, in the bottom of the first to take a 2-1 lead. Yunel Escobar led off with a single, advanced to second on a walk to Mike Trout and scored when third baseman Kyle Seager committed an error attempting to backhand Albert Pujols' grounder. Andrelton Simmons followed with a ground single to right field to plate Trout.
Seattle pulled to within 3-2 in the sixth inning on Nelson Cruz's team-leading 31st home run of the season. The solo homer came off a 2-2 changeup and landed an estimated 421 feet over the left-center-field fence.
NOTES: Major League Baseball owners voted Thursday to approve the sale of the Mariners' controlling interest from Nintendo of America to a group of minority owners headed by Seattle businessman John Stanton. ... Seattle RHP Hisashi Iwakuma is the only member of the team's Opening Day rotation to make every scheduled start this season. ... Los Angeles 3B Yunel Escobar posted his second five-hit game of 2016 on Wednesday -- the first Angel with two such games since in a season since SS Gary DiSarcina in 1998. Over the last two seasons (2015-16), Escobar has an major-league-best five five-hit games. No one else has more than two. ... RHP Garrett Richards saw Dr. Steve Yoon at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic on Monday for follow up on his ulnar collateral ligament injury, and he was told there was significant improvement. Richards subsequently began a throwing program.