Palmer gets to 5-0 with bullpen help

The Matt Palmer joy ride continued Tuesday night, but it got a little bumpy at times and almost wound up in the break-down lane.

The 30-year-old rookie lasted only five innings and gave up five runs against the Seattle Mariners, the worst start in his brief Angels career.

His timing was good, though. The Angels’ offense banged out 14 hits and relievers Jason Bulger, Scot Shields and Brian Fuentes shut down the Mariners over the final four innings of a 6-5 victory in Safeco Field, pushing Palmer’s record to 5-0.

Palmer’s five consecutive wins to start his Angels career is two shy of Jered Weaver’s club record of seven in 2006. Palmer tied Bo Belinsky’s five-game winning streak to start his Angels career in 1962.

“I’m not even thinking about it -- I don’t want to think about it,” Palmer said of his 5-0 mark. “I just want to stay in the game long enough to help the team.”

Even more impressive Tuesday was the work of an Angels bullpen that had a 6.21 earned-run average, second worst in the major leagues.

But Bulger, Shields and Fuentes retired all 12 batters they faced, seven by strikeout, and Fuentes, in his first save situation since May 10, struck out the side in the ninth inning for his 10th save.

“Those are certainly the roles we envisioned with Scot and Brian, and Jason gave us two important innings in the middle,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “If we can get our feet on the ground down there, that’s going to be important to us.”

Palmer closed his complete-game victory over the Boston Red Sox in Anaheim on May 13 by retiring the last 19 batters in a row.

Against Seattle, he did not exactly pick up where he left off against Boston, giving up a bases-empty home run to Ken Griffey Jr. in the first inning, a two-run shot to Ronny Cedeno in the second, and Ichiro Suzuki’s run-scoring double in the fourth.

But as he did in earlier wins over Detroit and Boston, games in which he gave up eight earned runs, Palmer persevered, coming up with several big pitches to keep the Angels in the game.

Suzuki’s hit in the fourth inning put runners on second and third with two out, but Palmer struck out Franklin Gutierrez to end the inning.

With two on and one out in the fifth inning, Palmer got Jose Lopez to ground to shortstop Maicer Izturis, who started an inning-ending double play.

“Matt was not as crisp as we’ve seen him, but when push came to shove, he made some big pitches,” Scioscia said. “He kept us in the game and hung around long enough to get the win.”

Mariners starter Felix Hernandez threw seven four-hit shutout innings against Texas in his last start, but the right-hander wasn’t nearly as sharp Tuesday, nor was the defense behind him.

Run-scoring singles by Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter gave the Angels a 2-0 lead in the first, an inning in which Hernandez did not record his first out until his 24th pitch.

After home runs by Griffey and Cedeno put Seattle ahead, 3-2, the Angels tied the score, 3-3, on Howie Kendrick’s single in the fourth. Suzuki’s double made it 4-3 in the fourth.

Izturis and Abreu, each of whom had three hits, opened the fifth inning with singles and advanced on Hunter’s groundout. Izturis scored and Abreu took third on a wild pitch, and Kendry Morales walked, putting runners on first and third.

Mike Napoli hit a double-play grounder to second, giving Hernandez a chance to escape further damage, but Lopez booted the ball for an error, allowing Abreu to score for a 5-4 lead.

The Angels extended the lead to 6-4 in the sixth on Izturis’ single, stolen base and Abreu’s double to right-center field.

Kenji Johjima’s leadoff double in the sixth knocked Palmer out of the game. With Bulger pitching, Johjima took third on Cedeno’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Endy Chavez’s groundout to pull the Mariners within 6-5.

Bulger also struck out two of three batters in a scoreless seventh, and Shields struck out one of three in a scoreless eighth.

--

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com