Josh Hamilton leads hit parade as Angels drop Mariners, 7-1

Josh Hamilton stood alone in the far corner of the Angels’ clubhouse early Wednesday evening, looking far too frustrated for a guy whose batting average is higher than it has been in nearly a month and whose team is on its longest winning streak in nearly a year.

For the first six weeks of the season, Hamilton had reason to be frustrated. He was one of the worst hitters in baseball, batting .207 with 44 strikeouts for an underperforming team that was eight games under .500. But over the last 10 games he has hit nearly 100 points higher. And he has drawn almost as many walks over that span as he did in all of April.

Wednesday that newly patient approach paid off with a season-high two walks and two runs batted in in a 7-1 win over the Seattle Mariners, the Angels’ fourth in a row.

BOX SCORE: Angels 7, Seattle 1

Ask Hamilton, though, and he’ll tell you nothing has changed.

“The ball is finding holes,” said Hamilton, who has struggled to define his performance this season almost as much as he has struggled to fix it. “It’s irritating for me to try to explain. Before … the results weren’t there. So when the results finally get there, it’s like something different happened. But it really hasn’t.

“That’s irritating.”

It’s probably more irritating to opponents because Hamilton’s not the only Angel for whom the ball is suddenly finding holes. Albert Pujols, hitting 86 points below his lifetime average two weeks ago, batted .300 with eight RBIs over his last 10 games. Howie Kendrick hit .359, scored eight runs and drove in eight more since May 12. Alberto Callaspo, who had two hits, two runs and two RBIs Wednesday, has hit .294, and Mike Trout has batted .364 with three home runs, 10 runs and nine RBIs.

“Our offense is really starting to click. And it makes your job as a pitcher a lot easier,” said C.J. Wilson (4-3), who watched the Angels be shut out in his last two starts, then saw them score seven times for him in the first two innings Wednesday. “You have a lot of All-Stars in the lineup. So you think that once they get hot together, then it gets a lot more difficult for the opposing team.”

And that certainly has been the case in the four-game winning streak in which the Angels have outscored opponents 37-12.

“It’s a lot of runs, I guess, compared to what we’ve been doing,” said Mark Trumbo, who was three for four Wednesday to extend his hitting streak to seven games. “It’s no secret: Guys perform a little better if they’ve had recent success. Hopefully, just like last year, this may be the time in which we start playing to our capability.”

There are some similarities between this year and last. For example, the Angels were seven games under .500 last May when they began their season-long winning streak behind a win by Wilson. After Wilson’s victory Wednesday, the team is eight games below .500.

Last year the Angels won 71 of their final 119 games and were in the playoff hunt until the final week of the season.

If they do that again this year … well, they don’t want to go there yet.

As Hamilton says, nothing has changed. Or as his manager says, maybe everything has.

“It’s good to see some guys feeling more comfortable in the batter’s box,” Mike Scioscia said. “We’re seeing much better at-bats from our team as a group. Guys are that supposed to get on base are getting on base.

“There’s a much better chemistry right now.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com

Twitter: @kbaxter11