Angels edge M’s, 4-3

SEATTLE The two Angels’ hitters with the most success against Felix Hernandez in the past were able to continue it in the present and put a damper on his quest for 20 wins and the Seattle Mariners’ victory hopes on Tuesday night.

David Murphy and Mike Trout each hit home runs off Hernandez giving them four each in their career off the Mariners’ ace and that’s all the offense the Angels would need in a 4-3 win over Seattle at a sparsely populated Safeco Field.

Meanwhile an early base�running miscue cost the Mariners a run, that might have been useful late.

Trout .344 batting average (21-for-61) and Murphy .296 batting average (24-for-81) came into the game having hit Hernandez well in the past, so it wasn’t a complete fluke.

Hernandez fell to 17-9 on the season after working seven innings, giving up the four runs on five hits with three walks, five strikeouts, a hit batter and the homers allowed. Hernandez will likely get three more chances to get the three wins needed for the elusive 20-win plateau.

He didn’t pitch poorly, and the two homers were probably the two hardest-hit balls he allowed all night. But it was enough to beat him.

The Mariners picked up a 1-0 lead against Angels’ starter Nick Tropeano in the first inning. Nelson Cruz crushed a 0-1 slider, sending a line drive over the wall in center field for his 42nd home run of the season tied for the most in all of baseball. MLB Statcast measured the home run at 436 feet with an exit speed off the bat of 113 mph.

Should it have been a two-run homer though?

Ketel Marte led off the game with a single to center. While on first base, he attempted a steal of second on the first pitch to Cruz. He was thrown out in a close play. But getting thrown out with Cruz at the plate is suboptimal.

Cruz had to settle for the solo shot.

The 1-0 lead didn’t last long amid some minor controversy in the third inning. Hernandez had retired the first six batters he faced with a pair of 1-2-3 innings. He looked sharp and in command. But his first pitch of the inning rode up and in, grazing the shoulder of David Freese. Freese, who had been hit in a similar spot the night before, was angry about being hit again and yelled a few words at his own dugout to let them know his displeasure, perhaps as a precursor for retaliation.

Seeing that, home-plate umpire Alan Porter called timeout and issued warnings to both benches. It left Hernandez with his arms extended and asking, “Why?”

McClendon even came out of the dugout, perplexed as to the reason for the delay.

The inning got a little funky from there. Hernandez gave up an infield single to Carlos Perez and struck out Taylor Featherston. But with one out, Murphy was able to get just enough of a low sinker to golf it over the wall in right field for a three-run homer. The wall-scraper hit off the top of the padded wall and hopped over for a 3-1 lead for the Angels.

Seattle was able to cut the deficit to one run in the unlikeliest of scenarios Seth Smith scoring from first base on a single to left field.

With two outs, Smith, who won’t be confused for Ketel Marte or Mike Trout in terms of speed, was running on contact when Franklin Gutierrez singled into left-center. Murphy took a little time to get to the ball and then fired it into shortstop Erick Aybar, who was in no position to throw home, having assumed Smith would stop at third. Third base coach Rich Donnelly saw what was transpired and sent Smith. The Angels had no play at the plate.

The Angels got the run back in the top of the sixth on an uncharacteristic mistake from Hernandez. After getting up 0-2 on Trout, Hernandez tried to elevate a fastball up and in on his hands the place to get Trout to swing and miss. But the pitch wasn’t high enough or in enough Trout crushed it into the unsuspecting fans in thePen beer garden.

The Mariners made it a one-run game in the seventh inning. Franklin Gutierrez continued his career resurrection, crushing a solo homer to left field off reliever Fernando Salas. Gutierrez’s 13th homer of the season cut the lead to 4-3.

But the Mariners couldn’t come up with the tying run in the eighth or ninth inning, despite putting a runner on base in each.

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