Angels take flight with Byrd
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Vladimir Guerrero and Darin Erstad homered to help Paul Byrd get his first victory of the season, and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 6-1 Monday night.
Byrd (1-2) scattered 11 hits over eight innings while improving his career record against the Mariners to 4-0 and lowering his ERA against them to 1.38. He struck out three, walked none and worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth by getting Randy Winn and Miguel Olivo to pop up.
The right-hander signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Angels on Jan. 15, the day they traded the Ramon Ortiz to Cincinnati.
Ichiro Suzuki, who set a major league single-season record with 262 hits and won his second A.L. batting title, was 0 for 5. The Mariners’ run came on an RBI single in the eighth inning by Raul Ibanez.
Aaron Sele (1-1) allowed six runs and eight hits over four innings in his return to Angel Stadium. The right-hander pitched three seasons in Anaheim and won a World Series ring with the Angels in 2002, but didn’t pitch in the postseason that year because of a partially torn muscle in his rotator cuff that required surgery.
It also was a homecoming of sorts for third baseman Adrian Beltre, his first game in Southern California since leaving the Dodgers for free agency. Beltre, who led the majors last season with 48 home runs, was 1 for 4 with a double and received a mixed reaction from the crowd of 39,638 his first time up.
Garret Anderson opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and Guerrero added a two-run shot in the third that landed in the upper tier of the left-field bullpen.
Erstad, who was aboard on a walk before Guerrero’s fourth homer, hit his second of the season with two on in the third. He pulled a 2-2 pitch high off the screen attached to the right field pole, pushing the Angels’ lead to 6-0.
Rookie Dallas McPherson, scheduled to be the Angels’ opening day third baseman before a herniated disc sidelined him, made his season debut after being recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake on Monday. He went 0 for 4, booted Winn’s routine grounder in the fourth for an error, and was thrown out trying to steal in the bottom of the inning.
First baseman Richie Sexson was back in the Seattle lineup as the designated hitter, going 1 for 4 after missing three games with the flu.
Mariners second baseman Bret Boone continues to struggle against Byrd, going 1 for 4 Monday. He is 4 for 30 lifetime against him.