Angels, and Scott Kazmir, take a step back in 8-3 loss

The Angels have danced their way through the 2010 season, and it hasn’t been a West Coast swing. It’s been more of a one-step-forward, two-steps-back kind of jig, one the team and several of its players have perfected over the last two months.

Any momentum the Angels gained in wins over Toronto on Tuesday and Wednesday fizzled with Friday night’s 8-3 loss to Seattle, a game in which Mariners left-hander Cliff Lee allowed two earned runs and four hits and struck out 10 in eight innings.

The same could be said for erratic Angels left-hander Scott Kazmir, who followed two solid starts with a 5 1/3-inning appearance. He gave up six runs (five earned) and eight hits in an effort in which, by his own admission, he wasn’t fooling anyone at Angel Stadium.

“They weren’t biting on my offspeed pitches because they were locked in to my fastball,” said Kazmir, who fell to 3-5 with a 6.34 earned-run average. “I would have kept them honest more if I threw more sliders and changeups.

“Once I have it in their heads that I can throw those pitches for strikes, it changes the whole game. You can tell as soon as I throw them that they’re not even offering, so they can sit on one pitch.”

Kazmir had a 6.82 ERA after a May 11 loss to Tampa Bay, a number of mechanical flaws causing command problems that sent his pitch counts soaring.

The left-hander seemed to right himself with a pair of seven-inning efforts in his previous two starts, in which he allowed a combined seven earned runs and 12 hits in a loss to Texas and a win over St. Louis.

But Friday night was a step back for Kazmir, who gave up one single in his first trip through the Mariners’ order before allowing eight of the next 16 batters to reach base.

Ichiro Suzuki sparked a two-out rally in the third with a single to center. Kazmir walked the .194-hitting Chone Figgins, and Franklin Gutierrez hit a run-scoring single to left.

With the speedy Figgins and Gutierrez running on a 1-and-2 pitch, Milton Bradley singled to deep left-center to score both and give Seattle a 3-2 lead.

“It’s very frustrating,” Kazmir said. “It feels like I go out there and everything feels great, and the next thing you know, I get two outs and before I can blink, I give up three runs.”

Jose Lopez’s solo home run in the fourth, on a fastball that was supposed to be inside but wound up over the middle, made it 4-2, and Suzuki and Figgins keyed another rally, this one for two runs, in the fifth.

Suzuki singled to left, giving him his major league-leading 24th multihit game, and Figgins doubled to right to score Suzuki.

Figgins took third on right fielder Bobby Abreu’s bobble and scored on Bradley’s sacrifice fly to center for a 6-2 lead.

“I couldn’t throw the fastball inside to a right-handed hitter,” Kazmir said. “I was getting into counts with little margin for error.”

The Angels, who fell to 23-27 but remained four games behind the first-place Rangers in the American League West, cut the deficit to 6-3 in the fifth when Kevin Frandsen doubled and scored on Howie Kendrick’s single.

But the Mariners added two insurance runs off shaky reliever Scot Shields in the ninth, with Rob Johnson and Josh Wilson doubling to start the rally.

Shields has been the most erratic reliever in a bullpen with the league’s worst ERA. The right-hander has a 6.89 ERA and has allowed opponents a .460 on-base percentage in 18 games, seemingly putting his job in jeopardy.

“There’s a lot we’re trying to sift through, but once things settle, I think you’re going to see a good team,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “No one is under a microscope, no one guy is a target, but we need guys to get into their games and give us a little stability.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com