Angels again held to no gain

Like a wide receiver being smothered all game by a shutdown cornerback, the Angels have been unable to achieve any separation from the Seattle Mariners.

They swept a three-game series from Detroit July 27-29, and Seattle stayed even with them in the standings. They swept a three-game set from Minnesota Aug. 10-12 and picked up only one game. They won three straight over Boston and New York last week, and their lead over the Mariners remained the same.

Saturday night, the Angels had a rare chance to give themselves a little breathing room because of Seattle’s loss to Texas, but usually reliable left-hander Joe Saunders coughed up three runs in the sixth inning, the Angels’ offense wheezed its way through the final seven innings, and the Toronto Blue Jays pulled away for a 9-2 victory.

The Angels’ American League West lead over Seattle remained at one game, which assures them of at least a share of first place when they begin a three-game showdown series in Safeco Field on Monday night.

The Angels, at 75-54, have the second-best record in the major leagues, but since July 6, they have been unable to open more than a four-game lead.

Asked if he was concerned that the Angels have played so well and still can’t shake Seattle, Manager Mike Scioscia took the contrarian route.

“They’re playing pretty well and can’t catch us,” he said of the Mariners.

Either way you look at it, neither team appears capable of running away with the division.

“We’re trying to concentrate on pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game, and at the end of the day it’s added up to us being where we’ve been all year, in first place,” center fielder Gary Matthews Jr. said. “We can’t worry about records. We just have to play our game and concentrate on things we can control.”

A big part of the Angels’ game is aggressive baserunning, but they had one player thrown out at the plate and another thrown out at third Saturday night.

Another player did the unthinkable in what is usually a relentless running attack -- he eased up on the basepaths -- and that cost the Angels a run on a play that may have been the game’s turning point.

With the score tied, 2-2, in the fourth inning, Howie Kendrick on first and Maicer Izturis on second with two out, Reggie Willits, who’d doubled in his first two at-bats, lined a single to center.

Izturis rounded third and headed for home, and Kendrick rounded second and headed for third. Instead of throwing home, Toronto center fielder Vernon Wells fired to third in time to cut down Kendrick for the final out.

But home plate umpire Larry Vanover ruled Izturis did not cross the plate before Kendrick was tagged by Troy Glaus at third, nullifying the Angels’ run.

“If you look at the replay, it’s very close, but the last three or four steps, it looked like Izzy pulled up a bit, and that cost him,” Scioscia said. “That’s a cardinal rule of baserunning. Any time there’s a backside play and you’re going to score, you want to keep running through the base. For some reason, Izzy didn’t.”

The Blue Jays broke the game open in the sixth on consecutive doubles by Glaus, Aaron Hill and Gregg Zaun and John McDonald’s run-scoring single, which gave Toronto a 5-2 lead. Frank Thomas’ two-run double and Glaus’ two-run homer highlighted Toronto’s four-run ninth.

The Angels had six hits in the first two innings against Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum but scored only twice, and they managed two more hits the rest of the way against Marcum and relievers Brian Wolfe and Scott Downs. Saunders gave up five runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings to fall to 7-2.

“Obviously, it was a big momentum swing,” Scioscia said of the Angels’ fourth-inning run that wasn’t, “but as it turned out, I don’t know that it would have made a difference. We didn’t pitch well enough to win.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com