Angels Pound Mariners : Baseball: Aided by three Seattle errors, they give Finley all the support he needs in 8-2 complete-game victory.

Chuck Finley finally got the support he was looking for in the Angels’ 8-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night at Anaheim Stadium.

Whether the bulk of it came from the Angels or the Mariners is open to debate. Each team had a hand in the Angel victory.

This time around, Finley could sit back and laugh with the rest of the crowd of 38,201 as the Mariners threw the ball around the stadium. Three Seattle errors, including two in the pivotal fourth inning, led directly to Finley’s third victory in his last four starts.

Unlike his last start, when the Angels committed four errors in a 5-1 loss to Detroit last week, his teammates played solid defense behind him and came up with key hits. A five-run fourth, highlighted by a two-run single by catcher Greg Myers, throwing errors by Seattle left fielder Henry Cotto and starting pitcher Erik Hanson and a solo home run by Gary DiSarcina, was all the backing Finley (6-5) needed to win.

“They had a little circus going like we did my last start,” said Finley, who defeated Seattle for the seventh consecutive time and the 10th overall.

It was the first complete-game victory for an Angel pitcher at Anaheim Stadium since April 28, when Mark Langston defeated Jim Abbott of the New York Yankees, 3-2. And it was the first time in Finley’s career that he had did not give up a walk in throwing a complete game. He struck out six and gave up two earned runs and eight hits.

“We wanted to keep them guessing a little bit,” Finley said. “And that’s what we did. I showed them a few more fastballs than usual. I had been pitching like a guy with an 85 m.p.h. fastball, and I still have a pretty good fastball.”

Luis Polonia’s leaping catch at the left-field wall robbed Omar Vizquel of an extra-base hit and possibly a two-run home run in the second and kept the Angels from what could have been a 4-0 deficit.

“Luis’ play was the play of the game,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said. “We played good, solid defense. It was a completely different ballgame tonight and a completely different Chuck Finley.”

Hanson cruised through 3 2/3 innings with a 2-0 lead and a stranglehold on the Angel hitters, but that ended swiftly and in embarrassing fashion in the fourth inning. In the end, Hanson had only himself to blame.

After retiring Tim Salmon on a groundout and striking out Chili Davis, Hanson hit Kelly Gruber in the back with a breaking pitch.

Hanson walked J.T. Snow and Stan Javier, loading the bases. Myers then delivered a single to left field that scored Gruber and Snow.

What happened next could be filed under the Comedy of Errors Dept.

Cotto’s throw home from left sailed all the way to the backstop, allowing Myers to take second. Hanson played the ball off the screen like an outfielder and, seeing that Javier had wandered too far off third base, turned to throw. But Hanson double-clutched and winged the ball over the head of third baseman Mike Blowers. By the time Cotto caught up with the ball, Javier and Myers scored and the Angels led, 4-2.

“I’ve seen that play before,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “Down in Tampa when I was 11 years old, playing in the playground. (Hansen) lost his composure completely. He wasn’t in position on the throw home and then his throw went farther into left field than the original base hit. The throw home wasn’t anything to marvel about either.”

Hanson’s unraveling wasn’t complete, however.

The next batter, DiSarcina, homered over the left-field wall for a 5-2 Angel lead.

Leading off the fifth, Salmon doubled to right and scored on a double to right by Davis.