A 7-0 Lead Is Blown by Angels : Baseball: Fast start, fueled by Salmon’s home run in the second, is wasted as the bullpen lets the Mariners escape, 10-7.

The Angels had the Seattle Mariners pinned to the Kingdome turf two innings into Saturday’s 10-7 loss.

They had Seattle starter Greg Hibbard teetering on the brink of disaster after a five-run first inning. Then, they had a seven-run lead--provided in part by Tim Salmon, who continued to terrorize opposing pitchers with a two-run homer in the second inning.

And finally, they had already dented the Mariner bullpen in Friday’s 11-1 rout.

But things aren’t what them seem with these Angels. A seven-run lead slipped away by the eighth inning. It was the Angel bullpen, not the Mariners’, that faltered and Salmon went hitless after his second-inning blast.

And an easy victory turned into a dreadful loss for the Angels.

They had good reason to lean on Salmon as they sought their fourth consecutive victory.

His second-inning blast over the 380-foot sign on the right-center field wall ran his streak of consecutive hits against the Mariners to eight, dating to last year.

It was his 14th hit in 16 at-bats, his fourth homer and 11th run batted in in the last four games.

In the end, Seattle made Salmon’s heroics a moot point, tying the score in the eighth inning on a two-out run-scoring single by Jay Buhner and taking the lead on pinch-hitter Jerry Willard’s three-run homer against reliever Joe Grahe.

Seattle reliever Bobby Ayala pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Dwight Smith to end the game.

In fact, Mariner relievers held the Angels scoreless and hitless after Goose Gossage entered the game with two out in the fourth inning.

By the end of three innings, the Angels held a 7-4 lead and the question was this:

Were the starting pitchers that bad? Or were the hitters simply that hot?

The answer was probably a little of both.

The Angels jumped on Hibbard right from the start. Seattle waited a while to knock around the Angels’ Mark Leiter. Hibbard outlasted Leiter, although that’s not saying much.

Hibbard has been nothing short of a disappointment for the Mariners since signing as a free agent in January. They had hoped he would bolster a rotation that included 19-game winner Randy Johnson and still could be one of the American League’s best.

But he went into Saturday with a 1-2 record and a 4.19 earned-run average in seven starts.

He offered little challenge to Angel batters before leaving after giving up seven runs and seven hits with six walks and two strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings.

Hibbard walked Salmon in the first, which rated as about the smartest move a Mariner pitcher had made in the past two games.

But then he walked Chili Davis, gave up run-scoring singles by Bo Jackson and Chris Turner, walked Rex Hudler, hit Spike Owen in the backside and gave up a two-run single by Gary DiSarcina.

Angels 5, Mariners coming to bat.

In the second, Salmon hammered a 2-and-1 pitch and the Angels led, 7-0.

Ordinarily, a seven-run lead would be cause for jubilation in the Angel dugout. But they quickly learned they had lost Davis for the rest of the game after he needed six stitches to close a wound below his left kneecap after a home-plate collision with catcher Dan Wilson in the first.

Davis is not expected to play today and will be examined when the Angels return to Anaheim on Monday.

Leiter wasn’t exactly providing good news when he was on the mound, giving up run-scoring singles by Tino Martinez and Wilson in the second.

Seattle then closed to 7-4 on Reggie Jefferson’s two-run homer to center in the third.

After a walk to Edgar Martinez, Rodgers replaced Leiter with Craig Lefferts.

An inning later, Hibbard was gone, replaced by Gossage, a former hard-throwing closer reduced to a role as a middle reliever.

Lefferts and Gossage restored some order to the game, keeping the opposition relatively quiet.