ANAHEIM, Calif. — Mike Trout drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a home run against Felix Hernandez, Cliff Pennington also homered, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 on Saturday night.
Nelson Cruz put Seattle ahead 2-1 in the sixth with his second homer in two nights after an eight-game drought. But Trout responded in the bottom half when he drove a 1-0 pitch to center field after a leadoff single by Rafael Ortega. It was Trout’s third homer of the season and fifth of his career against Hernandez (1-2).
Trout, the 2014 AL MVP, entered the game with a .354 career average against the 2010 AL MVP — the highest by any player with at least 50 at-bats against Hernandez.
For good measure, Trout threw out pinch-hitter Adam Lind in the seventh when he tried to stretch his hit over the center fielder’s head into a double.
Hector Santiago (1-0) allowed two runs and four hits over six innings and struck out seven. The left-hander, who pitched seven innings of two-hit ball and fanned 10 last Monday in a 7-0 road win against the White Sox, is 4-0 over his last 10 starts — all of which the Angels have won.
Joe Smith pitched the eighth, hitting Robinson Cano and Cruz back-to-back with two outs before retiring pinch-hitter Seth Smith on a comebacker.
Huston Street got three outs for his fifth save in five chances.
Hernandez allowed three runs and five hits through seven innings with four strikeouts and two walks. The Venezuelan-born right-hander fanned Ortega in the first inning for 2,163rd career strikeout, breaking Randy Johnson’s franchise record.
Hernandez was scheduled to start the opener of this three-game series. But he was scratched because of the flu, and Hisashi Iwaukuma went eight innings on his normal four days’ rest before the Mariners won 5-2 in 10.
Franklin Gutierrez, who singled home the go-ahead run as a pinch-hitter in Friday night’s win, led off the second with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by No. 9 hitter Leonys Martin.
Pennington tied it in the third, driving Hernandez’s first pitch of the inning into the lower seats in the right-field corner for his first home run in an Angels uniform. It was just his second RBI in 43 career at-bats against Hernandez to that point.
SPIKE MARKS
Mariners: Hernandez was 7-2 with a 1.37 ERA in his previous 14 starts against the Angels, but his career record against them is only 14-15. … Switch-hitting SS Ketel Marte doubled in the first inning for his first extra-base hit of the season. It came in his 53rd at-bat. . The Mariners have had three bases-loaded sac flies in this series so far, the others coming in the first inning Friday against Nick Tropeano.
Angels: Kole Calhoun has no RBIs and just four hits in 36 career at-bats against Hernandez. But he drove in the Angels’ final run with an eighth-inning single against Vidal Nuno. …. The switch-hitting Pennington was the first second baseman to homer against Hernandez since Ian Kinsler did it with Texas on July 3, 2013. Fifteen of his 31 career homers have been solo shots. . Albert Pujols was 0 for 4, and is hitless in 27 at-bats since his two-run homer on April 17 at Minnesota.
UP NEXT
Mariners: LHP Wade Miley (0-2, 8:04 ERA) has made two career starts against the Angels, both last season with Boston. He beat them 6-1 in the first one, allowing one run over eight innings. In the second one, he pitched seven innings of one-hit ball in a duel with C.J. Wilson and settled for a no-decision as the Red Sox lost 1-0 on Trout’s ninth-inning homer.
Angels: Matt Shoemaker (1-2) has a 1.74 ERA with eight home runs allowed in his 24 big league victories, compared to an 8.20 ERA with 25 homers allowed in his 16 losses.
