Angels Hit Away, Then Hang On

Two games into the season, two distinct Angel trends have emerged. First, the Angels have an offense that seems to have the potential to score eight or nine runs a night. Second, the Angels might need eight or nine runs to win on a number of those nights.

The Angels built an eight-run lead by the top of the fourth inning Wednesday night, riding Vladimir Guerrero’s three-run home run and the first of Garret Anderson’s two homers to a huge early cushion, and still they had to sweat out a 10-7 victory over the Seattle Mariners in front of 37,947 in Safeco Field.

“You can’t ask much more from our offense, with all the runs we’ve scored in two games,” Manager Mike Scioscia said after the Angels combined for 20 runs and 28 hits, including six home runs, in two victories over the Mariners. “And tonight, we needed every one of them.”

Angel starter Jarrod Washburn was tagged for six runs and 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings, reliever Ben Weber gave up another run on a pair of doubles in the sixth, and if not for a controversial call that went the Angels’ way in the sixth, the game could have gotten really interesting.

Seattle scored four runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, and Randy Winn’s RBI double to left pulled Seattle to within 9-7 in the sixth. The Mariners had runners on second and third with two outs, and up stepped No. 3 hitter Bret Boone, who had doubled in a run in the fourth and homered in the fifth.

Boone seemed to check his swing on Weber’s 2-and-2 pitch, but home-plate umpire Larry Poncino ruled that he swung for strike three, eliciting an outburst from Boone and argument from Seattle Manager Bob Melvin.

“I saw bat head, but I don’t know -- I didn’t see a replay,” Weber said. “Some say he swung, some say he didn’t, but you know what? We usually don’t get those calls, so I’ll take it.”

Weber retired the side in order in the seventh, the Angels added an insurance run in the eighth on reliever Rafael Soriano’s error for a 10-7 lead, and setup man Francisco Rodriguez threw a scoreless eighth, blowing a 95-mph fastball by Ichiro Suzuki for strike three to end the inning.

Closer Troy Percival, who warmed up in the ninth inning Tuesday in a game the Angels led, 10-1, at one point, then retired the side in order in the ninth for his first save of the season.

“The important thing is late in the game, we held the lead,” Scioscia said. “That’s what we have to do.”

It was all Angels early on, as Guerrero, the new Angel right fielder, belted the first two pitches he had ever seen from Seattle starter Joel Pineiro for a double to left in the first and a three-run homer to left-center to cap a five-run second.

“Vlad is a special player who is very confident in his skills, and he knows when to be aggressive,” Scioscia said. “He’s not up there just blindly hacking. He has an idea what he’s doing. He sees a first pitch he likes, he’s going to swing at it.”

David Eckstein and Darin Erstad preceded Guerrero’s homer with RBI singles in the second. Jose Molina’s RBI double made it 6-0 in the third, and Anderson followed Guerrero’s walk in the fourth by blasting a Pineiro pitch over the wall in right-center for a two-run homer and an 8-0 lead, all eight runs scoring with two outs.

“I usually don’t do this, but I did -- I kind of mentally shut it down in the fourth inning,” Weber said. “But you get it back quickly. They put up a four-spot in the fourth, and then it’s time to start paying attention again. You have a tendency when you’re up, 8-0, to think you’re not going to pitch today.”

Boone’s home run made it 8-5 in the fifth, but Anderson increased the Angel cushion to 9-5 when he lined reliever Kevin Jarvis’ 0-1 fastball into the right-field seats, giving him his 10th multi-homer game.

“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself,” Anderson said, “but we’re swinging the bats well, and a lot of balls fell in. I hope we keep scoring runs, but you can’t anticipate scoring this many a night.”