Mariners Sweep Slumping Angels

It’s not the one-game-at-a-time mantra that Manager Mike Scioscia preaches, but it might be the scary truth for the Angels.

“We’ve got four must-wins,” Jeff Weaver said.

This is the second week in June, and the Angels must win? With the Kansas City Royals in town for a four-game series that starts tonight, the answer is yes, at least to Weaver.

“It’s a team we should definitely beat,” he said. “We’ve got to go out and try to do it, to prove to ourselves we’re the team we’re supposed to be.”

The Royals are baseball’s worst team, but the Angels aren’t much better, at least not right now.

With Felix Hernandez pitching a four-hitter and striking out nine in his first complete game, the Seattle Mariners posted a 6-2 victory Sunday that pushed the Angels deeper into last place in the American League West.

As the Oakland Athletics swept the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, the Mariners swept the Angels at Angel Stadium. The Angels, defending division champions, are 12-17 at home this season.

The only teams with worse home records are the Royals, a team that just fired its general manager, and the Florida Marlins, a team with a $15-million payroll.

You might expect the Royals and Marlins to field a bumbling, stumbling team. You would not expect that of the Angels, with a veteran core and a $103-million payroll, but the Angels do themselves in almost daily.

“We’ve given away far too many runs this year,” Scioscia said.

They gave away two more Sunday, in almost comical fashion. Raul Ibanez hit a two-run home run and Jeremy Reed a solo shot for Seattle, but the lasting images Sunday came from the fifth inning, in which the Mariners scored three runs.

With none out and runners on first and second, Yuniesky Betancourt bunted poorly -- toward the mound, in plenty of time for Weaver to throw out the lead runner at third base. But while transferring the ball from his glove to his bare hand, Weaver dropped it for an error that loaded the bases.

Ichiro Suzuki then hit a one-hop comebacker, “a double-play ball,” according to Scioscia. But Weaver muffed the easy catch for another error, and the Mariners had a run.

On the next pitch, Weaver grooved a 91-mph fastball, and Adrian Beltre slapped it into left field for a two-run single.

After the inning, Weaver tossed his glove at the dugout bench.

“I just had to laugh,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve had two errors in one season, let alone one game.”

He had two errors last season and three in 2002, but one in the two seasons in between.

The Angels gave up 45 unearned runs last season and this season have given up 43, most in the majors. They have made 47 errors; no team in the league has made more.

“There have been more breakdowns on the defensive end than any of us are comfortable with,” Scioscia said.

The offensive breakdown Sunday can be attributed largely to Hernandez, who lived up to his “King Felix” nickname for a day. His fastball hit 96 mph, and he threw 73 of 94 pitches for strikes.

Orlando Cabrera, who had three of the Angels’ four hits, singled home a run in the first inning and doubled and scored in the seventh. In between, Rodriguez retired 17 consecutive batters.

Rodriguez struck out the side in the eighth inning. As the ninth inning started, the Angels’ scoreboard crew played a rally monkey video, despite the four-run deficit and the absence of a rally.

The Angels did not score.