Finley Keeps the Faith, Beats Mariners Again : Angels: He gives up six hits in 8 1/3 innings for second victory in 17 starts, 3-0. Grahe gets the save.

He lost the bite on his forkball, he lost velocity off his fastball and a few times, he lost leads. Through all his struggles, Chuck Finley retained two things: his sense of humor and his faith in himself.

“I thought my birthday was going to come before I had another win, and my birthday’s in November,” Finley said after giving up six hits in 8 1/3 innings of the Angels’ 3-0 victory over the Mariners on Monday. It was only his second victory in his last 17 starts.

“It would be easy to say, ‘This season is a wash. We’re too far below .500,’ and it would be easy to throw it in. But I’m not like that,” said Finley (3-9), who left to applause from the Anaheim Stadium crowd of 19,658.

“I know I’m better than what I’ve done this season. Right now I’m going to enjoy this one and go out the next start and not change a thing.”

Finley walked four and struck out four and Joe Grahe--pitching in back-to-back games for the first time this season--got the final two outs to clinch the Angels’ 12th victory in 15 games and ninth in 12 games on this home stand. They hadn’t won that many on a home stand since July 4-14, 1985.

“We’ve got a lot of things going good for us right now,” said Chad Curtis, who ended a 10-at-bat slump with two singles against Erik Hanson (8-13) and scored two runs. “We’ve just got to keep it up.”

Keeping his pitches down was the key to Finley’s success Monday. Poor location had cost him much of the season, when he left too many pitches up and in the strike zone. On Monday, he had no difficulty with his control and was able to get a strikeout when he needed one. Lance Parrish took a curveball for a third strike with runners on second and third during the seventh inning.

“Gravity, I guess,” Finley joked in explaining how he kept the ball down. “A lack of velocity might have kept it down, too. . . . I was rushing the ball to the plate and not giving my arm a chance to create the arc it needed to throw the ball into the strike zone. Everything had been up and my arm was dragging, so my fastball was up, my curveball was up and my forkball never had any bite in the strike zone.”

Finley acknowledged that he didn’t want to leave the game, but after yielding singles to Ken Griffey Jr. and Kevin Mitchell that put runners on first and third, interim Manager John Wathan called on Grahe. After walking Jay Buhner, Grahe struck out pinch-hitter Tino Martinez and pinch-hitter Dave Cochrane grounded out.

Grahe, whose only blown save in 10 chances occurred when he gave up a game-tying home run to Toronto’s Dave Winfield on Wednesday in Finley’s last outing, was eager to avoid a repeat performance.

“After I walked Buhner, I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to let another game for Chuck slip away,’ ” Grahe said. “I don’t think I would have gotten out of the stadium alive if I did. I think he would have done the job himself. So it was life or death for me.”

The Angels took sole possession of fifth place, ahead of the Royals.

“We’re rolling right now and we have a lot of confidence in ourselves,” Wathan said. “Finley, hopefully, will get over the hump now. He had a tremendous outing, and I’m glad Joe Grahe was able to preserve the shutout.”

The Mariners, whose 39-62 record is the worst in the major leagues, undermined their own cause in the first inning, when Edgar Martinez left third base too early on Mitchell’s fly to center and was called out on an appeal play.

“I was conceding the run already. I just didn’t want a big inning,” Finley said. “I’m happy he left early and they didn’t get anything out of it.”

The Angels scored during the second on Curtis’ single, a ground out, and Gary Gaetti’s double to left, and twice more in the third. Von Hayes’ leadoff single and stolen base put him in scoring position, and Curtis delivered a single to center. Rene Gonzales also singled, and Gaetti brought Curtis home with a sacrifice fly to left.

Said Finley, who has won five consecutive games against the Mariners: “I’ve always had a lot of confidence and faith in myself. I’ve had my lumps along the way, and I just didn’t feel right the first half of the season. . . . I have to look beyond wins and losses and realize I’ve made strides from where I was two months ago or at the start of the season.”