Grant Green delivers game-winning hit in ninth inning for Angels

KEY MOMENT: With the Angels trailing, 5-4, in the ninth inning, Mike Trout walked and took off from first base on a 1-and-1 pitch to Albert Pujols, who sliced a double to right field. Trout slid feet-first into second base, not knowing where the ball went, “but I heard the crowd go nuts, so I knew it was a hit,” he said. Trout looked to third base coach Gary DiSarcina, who waved Trout home with the tying run, and Grant Green won it with a walk-off single.

AT THE PLATE: Josh Hamilton had three hits, including a run-scoring double in the first inning and a key single in the ninth. Kole Calhoun singled and scored in the first and hit a home run, his 11th, in the third. Trout followed Calhoun’s home run with one to center field, his 23rd, and singled and scored on Howie Kendrick’s single in the seventh. Kyle Seager’s solo home run keyed Seattle’s three-run first, and Mike Zunino ended an 0-for-25 skid and a 3-3 tie in the seventh with a run-scoring double.

ON THE MOUND: Left-hander Tyler Skaggs rebounded from a rocky first inning to blank the Mariners from the second through sixth innings, but he walked Corey Hart to open the seventh, gave up Zunino’s run-scoring double and Endy Chavez’s run-scoring single before being pulled. Jason Grilli, Fernando Salas and Joe Thatcher combined for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, Thatcher gaining the victory.

IN THE FIELD: Green got a game ball, but not from his game-winning hit. “It’s from my first recorded out as a shortstop in the major leagues,” he said. “Coming up as a shortstop, my Dad will love to have it.” Green made two nice plays, back-handing Willie Bloomquist’s seventh-inning grounder and making a long throw to first base, and ranging to the middle for Dustin Ackley’s ninth-inning grounder and throwing on the run to first for the out.

FOUL PLAY?: Some Mariners privately suspected that Garrett Richards might have doctored the ball Saturday night when cameras caught the Angels pitcher with a brown spot on the bill of his cap, which Richards tugged at often. But Richard said it wasn’t pine tar. “It’s just dirt and mud off the ball that builds up over the course of the season,” Richards said. “That’s all I’ve got.”

EXTRA BASES: Shortstop Erick Aybar sat out his second consecutive game because of a sore right groin and remains questionable for Monday. ... New closer Huston Street is the 29th pitcher to appear for the Angels, tying the franchise record for most pitchers used in a season, set in 1996, a year the Angels finished 70-91.

UP NEXT: Right-hander Matt Shoemaker (7-2, 4.38 ERA) will oppose Baltimore right-hander Bud Norris (7-6, 3.96) at Angel Stadium on Monday at 7 p.m. On the air: TV: FS West. Radio: 830.