Angels end losing streak with a little help from an old friend

The Rally Human showed up in the Angels dugout 21/2 hours before game time Tuesday night, former hitting coach Mickey Hatcher bringing his exuberance and, he hoped, some spell-breaking powers to his struggling old club, which is led by his friend and former boss, Manager Mike Scioscia.

“The exorcist is here! The exorcist is here!” Hatcher said as he bounced around the dugout. “Let’s get rid of all the demons! The first one is Mike. Where’s Mike?”

The Angels fired Hatcher in May 2012 amid a teamwide batting slump, but after what transpired in Angel Stadium on Tuesday night, they might want to retain him as some kind of staff sorcerer.

Maybe they were due to win a game, or maybe Hatcher brought them luck, but the Angels ended a losing streak at 11 games with a 7-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners in which they overcame two deficits.

“It felt good to shake hands after the game,” center fielder Mike Trout said. “It was a big win for us, and a big relief. You don’t want to lose 12 straight.”

Trailing by three in the sixth inning, Albert Pujols followed walks to Kole Calhoun and Trout with a three-run home run to left field against reliever Nick Vincent to tie the score, 4-4. Pujols’ 582nd homer moved him to within one of Mark McGwire for 10th place on the all-time list.

Two batters later, Jett Bandy, a late addition to the lineup after Geovany Soto was scratched because of right-knee inflammation, hit a towering fly ball off the left-field foul pole for a homer and a 5-4 lead.

It lasted all of three batters into the seventh. Second baseman Cliff Pennington bobbled Robinson Cano’s leadoff grounder for an error, Nelson Cruz walked, two straight J.C. Ramirez wild pitches scored a run, and Kyle Seager’s sacrifice fly gave Seattle a 6-5 lead.

But the Angels rallied with two outs in the eighth when Jefry Marte lined a 97-mph fastball from right-hander Arquimedes Caminero into the left-field seats for a homer and a 6-6 tie.

Bandy singled to left, but with Soto available only in an emergency, Scioscia couldn’t really pinch-run for him. The slow-footed catcher then came all the way around to score on Pennington’s triple of atonement into the right-field corner for a 7-6 lead, Bandy sliding headfirst into the plate with the go-ahead run.

“It felt really good to get that hit — it hadn’t been a great night to that point,” Pennington said. “Good things, bad things, great things, terrible things, are gonna happen in a game, and you have to turn the page as quickly as you can. There’s nothing else to it. That error wasn’t going to help or hurt me in that last at-bat.”

Two factors worked in the Angels’ favor on Pennington’s hit. Cruz, normally the designated hitter, was playing right field in place of the injured Seth Smith, and Ron Roenicke, one of the best third base coaches in the game, made the decision to wave Bandy around.

“Ron has a great game feel, and his decision-making is terrific,” Scioscia said. “He lets the play develop. Jett got a good secondary lead and did a good job of cutting the bases. Even though Jett isn’t fast, that was a pretty clean route. Ron read it great, he sent him home, and we got the go-ahead run.”

Recently acquired left-hander Brett Oberholtzer threw a scoreless eighth inning to earn the win, and Fernando Salas threw a scoreless ninth inning for the save, with Pennington starting a double play on Cruz’s grounder, as the Angels notched their first victory since an Aug. 3 victory over Oakland.

Had the Angels lost a 12th straight game, it would have tied a single-season franchise record for the longest losing streak.

The team originally thought 11-game losing streaks in 1974, 1992 and 1999 were franchise records, but further research revealed that the 1988 team lost its final 12 games.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna