Angels slam door on losing streak

What happens when a movable force meets a stoppable object?

You get a matchup like the one that took place Friday at Safeco Field where the Angels, with the most pliant pitching staff in the majors in May, faced the Mariners and baseball’s most inoffensive offense.

Opponents were hitting .335 against the Angels this month; the Mariners were batting .230 for the season. And neither team had won since April.

Clearly something had to give.

“Somebody,” Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said beforehand “is gonna win tonight.”

That somebody turned out to be his Angels, who rode a brilliant performance by right-hander Jered Weaver, three RBIs from both Juan Rivera and Kendry Morales and a trio of fourth-inning home runs to an 8-0 win that snapped a seven-game losing streak, the team’s longest in 10 seasons.

How rare – and sad – was this matchup? The last time the Mariners, who have now lost seven in a row, were involved in a game in which both teams were riding losing streaks of at last six games was ... well, never. In fact, that’s happened just five other times in the majors since the Seattle franchise was founded 34 years ago.

And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the Angels and Mariners squared off with both teams at least six games under .500 was August 1994 when Felix Hernandez, Seattle’s starter, was still in grade school.

Hernandez probably pitched better back then. On Friday, he walked two of the first three hitters ahead of Morales’ bases-loaded triple. In the fourth he gave up three home runs in a span of eight pitches, the last one Ryan Budde’s first homer in the majors.

Hernandez (2-3) was gone a batter later, the 10-out outing his shortest in more than three seasons. And the seven earned runs he allowed were more than he had given up in his last four starts combined.

Weaver (4-1), on the other hand, was magnificent, holding the Mariners hitless until Ken Griffey Jr. grounded a single to right field with two outs in the seventh. Weaver gave up a one-out double to Michael Saunders an inning later before leaving in favor of Scot Shields, who got the last five outs to complete the shutout.

Though given recent history, shutting out the Mariners isn’t much of a feat. Seattle, which is averaging just 3.1 runs a game, hasn’t scored since Wednesday.

But for the slumping Angels, who have had more team meetings than wins in May, the performance was clutch.

“I don’t think there’s one issue that’s caused us to struggle this last week,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “There’s certainly some breakdowns in a number of areas. Every level of our game needs to be brought up to its potential and maintained.”

Weaver, who struck out seven Friday, is certainly pitching up to his potential. Toss out his last start, when he gave up four runs in 4 2/3 innings of a loss to the Tigers, and he’s has gone at least six innings every time out, posting a 2.06 earned-run average.

“It’s a process,” Scioscia said. “We went through it last year and once we did, we hit stride and played great baseball. We’re going to need to find it this year.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com