Angels Hitters Are Listless in Seattle

September is still three days away, but the grips on those bat handles are tightening, and the tension of each game, each inning, each pitch, is growing more palpable.

The Angels went down meekly -- and quickly -- Monday night, succumbing to 20-year-old right-hander Felix Hernandez, whose first career shutout, a dominating five-hit gem in Seattle’s 2-0 victory in Safeco Field, took all of 1 hour 51 minutes.

Despite Kelvim Escobar’s impressive eight innings, in which he gave up seven hits, struck out nine and walked none, the Angels fell 6 1/2 games behind Oakland in the American League West with 30 games remaining.

Seven of the last 10 games are against the Athletics, seemingly enough time to close the gap, but with Oakland winning 19 of 24 games and threatening to run away with the division, a sense of urgency is beginning to envelope the Angels’ clubhouse.

“There’s more pressure to win -- we know we’re running out of games,” shortstop Orlando Cabrera said. “People say we still have seven games left against Oakland, but we need to win now and hope they fall a little, so by the time we face them, we’ll be close and they’ll feel the pressure.”

The Angels trailed the A’s by three games with nine games left in 2004 and won the division. They went on a 10-1 run in mid-September last season to pull from a tie atop the West to a seven-game lead by season’s end.

The consensus among the Angels is they need to be within two or three games going into the final 10-game stretch to have any chance at their third title in a row. So, they basically need to trim three or four games off the deficit in the next three weeks.

“We need to be close because Oakland is not the type of team to lose every single game to us,” Cabrera said. “Three games would be close. Four at the most.”

At this rate, the Angels might have to sweep the A’s to contend. Oakland continues to befuddle baseball, winning despite an offense that ranks last in the league in average and slugging percentage, 12th in runs and ninth in home runs.

No regular is hitting more than .300, and their leading run-producers -- Nick Swisher and Frank Thomas -- had all of 79 runs batted in through Monday.

The A’s have played large chunks of the season without No. 2 starter Rich Harden and shortstop Bobby Crosby, closer Huston Street is on the disabled list, and still they have a comfortable lead in the West.

“You look at their numbers -- you don’t see guys with 90-100 RBIs, no one is hitting .300, and they score five or six runs every day,” Cabrera said. “They pitch well, and their defense is pretty decent. They always find a way to win.”

Much like Seattle has done the last week. Since ending an 0-11 trip with a four-game sweep at the hands of the Angels on Aug. 17-20, the Mariners have played inspired baseball, winning five of six from the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox and ending their major league-record 20-game AL West losing streak Monday.

Funny how dropping completely out of the division race seems to bring out the best in some teams.

The Angels scored 26 runs and had 42 hits in three games against the Yankees over the weekend, but they had no chance against Hernandez (11-12), who needed only 95 pitches -- 70 strikes -- to dispatch the Angels. He threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 31 batters and had one three-ball count.

After Maicer Izturis was thrown out at the plate in the first inning, the Angels advanced one other runner to second. Hernandez hit 100 mph on the Safeco speed gun during a sixth-inning strikeout of Vladimir Guerrero and was throwing 96 mph in the ninth, retiring 10 in a row to end the game. A two-run fourth, highlighted by Richie Sexson’s run-scoring double, was all the offense Hernandez needed.

“He absolutely crushed the strike zone early,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said of Hernandez. “He was strike one on almost everybody and had very few three-ball counts. It’s not like we were up there slashing. He got ahead of hitters and was in the zone, making good pitches in and out.”