Angels beat Mariners, 4-3, but time is running out

Time is running out on the Angels.

A week ago they left town a season-high 12 games over .500 and in second place, 21/2 games behind the Texas Rangers, in the American League West.

Yet despite the fact they closed out their brief trip with a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, by the time the Angels’ charter flight landed in Southern California in the wee hours Friday, that deficit had grown to 31/2 games. Only now they have seven fewer games in which to make up the deficit.

And they’re beginning to feel a sense of urgency.

“Every at-bat, every pitch, you’ve got to take it seriously. And try to battle,” said Torii Hunter, who hit a three-run homer in the first inning Thursday. “Every day we get closer to Sept. 28, it’s very important.”

Sept. 28 is the last day of the season — although the Angels’ season could end sooner if they continue to play like did on the just-finished trip, when they lost four of seven, including three games in which they led.

On Thursday they got just enough from right-hander Ervin Santana, who appeared to still be feeling the effects of his last start, the first in his career on three days’ rest.

Santana, who won for the eighth time in nine decisions, walked a season-high seven batters through five innings. Only once in his career has he walked more and that was five years ago.

That wildness proved costly when Santana walked the Mariners’ eighth- and ninth-place hitters leading off the third, then watched both of them come around to score as part of a three-run Seattle rally.

That allowed the Mariners to erase most a 4-0 lead the Angels had built on Hunter’s three-run shot and a solo homer in the third by Howie Kendrick.

But then Santana (11-9) got helped from an unexpected source: the Mariners. Rather than wait out walks while continuing to drive up a pitch count that had already hit 89, Seattle’s hitters suddenly turned aggressive, allowing Santana to set down five consecutive hitters on nine pitches.

An 11-pitch battle with Ichiro Suzuki — which ended with a line-drive single by Santana’s head — eventually ended the pitcher’s night. But his bullpen picked him up with Bobby Cassevah, Scott Downs and Jordan Walden combining for 21/3 hitless innings.

Meanwhile the clock continues to tick for the Angels, who have only 25 games left.

“Every game is important,” Hunter repeated. “Every game you’ve got to be into it, you’ve got to take it like a playoff game.”

His fear now, though, is that the sense of urgency may have started too late.

“We had chances in the past. And I don’t want to look back and say we had that many chances and we just didn’t take advantage of it,” he said. “You’re thinking about all those things, everything that happened, if we did this, if we did that.

“All we can do is control today, what’s going on now. We’re not even close to being out of it. So all we have to do is just take it one day at one day. All the stuff that happened in the past, you’ve got to let it go and focus on today.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com