Big sixth inning is not enough for Angels as Mariners rally for four in eighth

One night before, Albert Pujols had been the hero in an 11-inning victory. Afterward he spoke knowingly about how, try as he might, he wouldn’t always be able to produce winning hits in big situations.

When Pujols had the opportunity to win the Angels another game Wednesday night at Safeco Field, this time he came up short. With Mike Trout aboard after getting hit by a pitch, Pujols struck out swinging as the final out in the Angels’ wild 8-7 loss to Seattle.

Once down four runs, the Angels rallied for six in the sixth inning before the Mariners mounted an eighth-inning rally for four runs off of reliever Blake Parker.

The latter effort featured three ground-ball singles and a bloop double, and was aided by a mental mistake from Angels second baseman Cliff Pennington, who threw to first on a grounder to him, eschewing the quickest path to a potential inning-ending double play.

“It was just a dumb play,” Pennington said. “I just thought we could get the double play that way, but it wasn’t even that close.”

With runners on first and second in a two-run game, Pennington fielded a routine grounder, briefly chased the runner from first, then threw to first for the force out. If he had thrown to second or stood his ground and tagged runner Danny Valencia, he would at least have a kept a runner out of scoring position. Immediately, Pennington knew he had erred, but he did not think a throw to second would have produced a double play. He queried shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who said the same.

Before the game unraveled, the Angels’ sixth-inning rally began, as so many big innings do, with a tiring starting pitcher. Seattle’s splitter-wielding Hisashi Iwakuma had limited them to three singles and a walk through five innings. But he had been drilled in the knee by a liner in the fifth, and he is subject to the same disadvantages as all starting pitchers when traversing the third time through a lineup.

Kole Calhoun’s leadoff double initiated the Angels’ rally. Trout’s smash to center field for a two-run home run set it into motion and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games. And Pujols’ single forced Iwakuma’s exit. Then, the Angels continued to shoot ball after ball into play against Mariners rookie right-hander Emilio Pagan, who was making his major league debut.

Simmons made the first out of the inning, and it appeared bound to be a home run until Seattle’s Guillermo Heredia heroically leaped to catch it over the left-field wall. Martin Maldonado made the second on a bunt. He appeared to take issue with Valencia’s hard tag and vocalized a complaint, briefly clearing both teams’ benches and bullpens.

Asked what he had been upset about, Maldonado said only that it was a “misunderstanding.”

In all, the Angels produced seven hits and six runs in that inning. For the rest of the game they had only four hits and one run, a Calhoun ninth-inning solo shot.

Earlier, Ben Revere began the third inning by lining a baseball hard to right field, right to the Mariners’ Ben Gamel. When Revere returned to the dugout, he yelled an expletive audible across the empty stadium.

In his next at-bat, he slapped a single up the middle and quickly stole second, seemingly leaping out of his season-long slump. He singled, too, amid the Angels’ big rally.

Starter Ricky Nolasco began by permitting a two-out solo shot to Robinson Cano in the first inning. After a perfect second, the Mariners lashed back-to-back drives to the same spot of the center-field wall in the third. The first, off Gamel’s bat, was hit too hard for Trout to track down. The second, by Cano, was not, and it ended the inning.

When Nelson Cruz led off the fourth with a single, right-hander Yusmeiro Petit warmed up in the Angels’ bullpen as Nolasco began to suffer from a right calf cramp. The Angels’ starter worked out of it, withstood an evaluation, and remained in the game for another inning. After Mike Zunino doubled, Jean Segura homered and Gamel doubled in the fifth, Petit warmed again.

Nolasco intentionally walked Cano, then fell behind in the count to Cruz, who snuck a single into left field, scoring Seattle’s third run of the inning. That concluded Nolasco’s night.

“I should be all right,” he said of the calf. “We’ll find out tomorrow.”

In relief, Petit finished the inning and recorded four more outs without issue. He struck out four of the six batters he faced.

Scioscia used left-hander Jose Alvarez to retire Gamel and Cano, both left-handed hitters, and then asked Parker to handle the eighth. He fumbled it.

The Angels (15-14) improbably lead the sport in comeback wins, and nearly registered another. But on a quiet night at the ballpark, they fell victim to their own methods.

Even on the warmest Seattle day in months, fewer than 14,000 fans were announced at Safeco Field. It was the lightest-attended game here in more than a year.

pedro.moura@latimes.com

Twitter: @pedromoura