Montero homers again off Weaver as Mariners defeat Angels

SEATTLE Each day when Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon meets with the media before the game, he’s asked about that night’s starting lineup. The questions range from batting order decisions to why one player is in there instead of another.

He enjoys and answers the questions with the joy of a man headed for a day of root canals.

It was no different before Wednesday’s 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Angels and starter Jered Weaver.

McClendon was asked for the reason he was starting the right-handed hitting Jesus Montero instead of the left-handing hitting Logan Morrison against the veteran Angels’ right-hander.

A quick mention was made about Montero’s previous success against Weaver. Coming into the game, Montero had 10 career at-bats against Weaver with five hits four of them home runs.

It was an impressive number for the small sample size though none of those bats had come in the last three seasons.

So do those numbers still matter since they came before the 2012 when Weaver was a different pitcher and Montero was a different hitter with a much different body?

“It means everything in the world,” he said, his voice rising. “The player knows they hit him and the pitchers (know) he hits him. Trust me. They know.”

With two outs and Nelson Cruz on second and Seth Smith on first base in the fourth inning, Montero proved McClendon’s decision to be the right one.

Montero hammered a hanging curveball from Weaver, sending a line drive over the wall in left-center into the Mariners’ bullpen for a three-run homer and a 3-0 lead.

It was Montero’s sixth career hit off Weaver in 12 at-bats and his fifth home run.

Montero joined Curtis Granderson (28 at-bats) and Alex Rodriguez (29 at-bats) with five homers off Weaver the most he has surrendered to any one player.

Given a 3-0 lead, Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma did what all good pitchers do post a shutdown follow-up inning.

Despite giving up a leadoff double to Erick Aybar to start the fifth inning, Iwakuma came back strong, stranding him there. He struck out David Freese, Carlos Perez and pinch-hitter Matt Joyce in succession to close out the top of the fifth.

Things got a little testy in the bottom of the fifth, leading to an early exit for Weaver.

Kyle Seager went into his normal pre-pitch routine which includes holding his left hand up to the umpire to ask for extra time to get set in the batter’s box. Weaver took exception to it and gestured to Seager with a few choice words about hurrying up.

Seager returned with some words of his own, including a few unable to be used in print.

An irritated Weaver then promptly tossed an 83 mph fastball that hit Seager in the upper back/shoulder area. Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora immediately ejected Weaver. A few players spilled on to the field in preparation for an altercation and Angels manager Mike Scioscia came out of the dugout to protest the ejection, but no real confrontation occurred between the two teams.

Iwakuma worked one more inning. He gave up a solo homer to David Murphy to start the sixth, but then retired Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout on ground ball outs to second and struck out Albert Pujols looking to end the inning.

He finished with one run allowed on four hits in six innings pitched with nine strikeouts to improve to 8-5 on the season and lower his ERA to 3.90.

Danny Farquhar (seventh), Carson Smith (eighth) and Tom Wilhelmsen (ninth) worked scoreless innings to close out the win. Wilhelmsen notched his 11th save.

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