Abbott Struggles, Mariners Don’t

There were two rare sightings in Anaheim Stadium Friday night: an errorless game played by the Angels, only their fourth of the season, and a sub-par pitching performance from left-hander Jim Abbott.

The Angels gained at least a small measure of respect from skeptical hometown fans, who had seen the team commit 11 errors in four home games en route to an 0-4 record to start the season.

But they couldn’t overcome Abbott’s less-than-spectacular evening and lost to the Seattle Mariners, 7-2, before 23,434 fans in their first home game since an uplifting 6-3 trip.

Abbott, who entered the game with a 0.89 earned-run average, struggled through six innings in which he allowed five runs--all of them earned--and 10 hits.

“Abby wasn’t very sharp,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “Usually he’s breaking bats and pitching inside on the hands, but tonight he was high and out over the plate. That’s where most hitters like it.”

Abbott broke one bat Friday night, but the ball fell into right field for a single for Mariner designated hitter Kevin Mitchell in the seventh inning.

It was typical luck. Abbott was 1-2 in three starts against the Mariners last season, and Seattle won five of six games from the Angels in Anaheim in 1991.

Mitchell had three hits, knocked in Seattle’s first three runs and scored two runs to pace a 12-hit effort against three Angel pitchers. Ken Griffey Jr. added two hits and three runs for the Mariners.

The long ball that Seattle fans expected when the team acquired Mitchell during the off-season in trade from the San Francisco Giants has not materialized. He had 109 homers during the past three seasons at San Francisco but is still in search of his first homer after 18 games as a Mariner.

But Mitchell has been hot, with nine hits in his last 18 at-bats. In the third inning Friday, he laced a curveball into left field for an RBI single.

In the fifth, he knocked an outside fastball to right-center field for a two-run double that gave the Mariners a 3-2 lead.

In the seventh, Mitchell’s broken-bat single was the key hit in a two-run inning that gave Seattle a 5-2 lead, and he was hit by a pitch and later scored during a two-run ninth that increased the cushion to 7-2.

“Kevin is obviously a very strong hitter,” Abbott said. “I’d like to have that curve back that he hit to left. Then he took a fastball over the plate and hit it for a double. Then he took a fastball on the hands and hit it for a single. He showed good diversity as a hitter. That’s why he’s a star.”

Seattle starter Dave Fleming, a 22-year-old rookie left-hander who helped pitch Georgia to the College World Series championship in 1990, gave up four hits and two runs and struck out six in 5 2/3 innings to gain the victory.

Fleming (2-1) was relieved in the sixth by Calvin Jones, who did not allow a hit and struck out four in 2 1/3 innings. Dennis Powell and Gene Harris pitched a hitless ninth inning for the Mariners.

“We had a chance to score a whole lot of runs in the first three innings, but we let that kid up,” Rodgers said of Fleming. “The complexion of the game could have changed if we took a bigger lead early.”

The Angels had runners on first and third with two out in the first inning and couldn’t score, but they got to Fleming in the third, when Hubie Brooks’ two-out, two-run single to right scored Gary DiSarcina and Luis Polonia for a 2-1 lead.

The Mariners went back in front in the fifth inning, thanks to Mitchell’s two-run double to right-center field. Edgar Martinez and Griffey opened the inning with singles to right field off Abbott, and Mitchell brought both home with his hit.

Abbott escaped further damage by inducing Jay Buhner, Pete O’Brien and David Valle to pop out to infielders, but the Mariners knocked Abbott out in the seventh.

Griffey led off with a walk, and Mitchell’s broken-bat single to right advanced him to third base. Rodgers pulled Abbott in favor of Chuck Crim, who walked Buhner to load the bases.

Griffey scored on O’Brien’s slow roller to third, and Mitchell, who moved to third on O’Brien’s out, came home on Valle’s long sacrifice fly to left, giving Seattle a 5-2 lead. Bobby Rose made a nice, diving stab of Rich Amaral’s liner to end the inning.