More of less helps Matthews

SEATTLE – Gary Matthews Jr. found that sometimes less is more. Less thinking. Less selectivity. Less remembering his last home run.

Matthews hit two homers, his first home runs in six weeks, John Lackey threw a seven-hitter in his first complete game of the season and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners 8-0 on Tuesday night.

“You can tell yourself it’s part of the game, that sooner or later it will balance out,” Matthews said of his homerless drought, which had reached 35 games. “But when you come into the clubhouse after a game, you’re not happy. And you’ve got all night to think about it.”

The Angels won for the fifth time in six games, one night after getting shut out on four hits. Los Angeles increased its lead over Seattle to four games in the American League West.

Lackey allowed six singles and a double in his second scoreless start this season – both against the Mariners – a feat he attributes to using more diving, split-fingered pitches against Seattle than he does against anyone else. His only complaint with his night was Ichiro Suzuki bunting for a single and then stealing second base with the score 8-0 in the eighth.

Two batters later, former Angel Jose Guillen thought Lackey may have been trying to hit him with the second of two pitches near his head.

“What do you think went through my mind?” Guillen said.

Lackey denied that.

Seattle’s four-game winning streak ended in part because Jeff Weaver allowed six runs and seven hits in four miserable innings that were reminiscent of his first six weeks this season, after which he was 0-6 with a 14.32 ERA.

Matthews had four hits to tie a season high and drove in three runs. It was his third career multihomer game, second of the season. He also had two homers on May 13 at Texas. He hadn’t homered since June 17, an inside-the-park homer.

“Dodger Stadium, last time we were in interleague. We don’t pay attention to that type of stuff,” he said.

The Angels hit four home runs, including a rare one from Maicer Izturis and another from Orlando Cabrera, who had a season-high four RBIs. Los Angeles had hit four home runs total in 22 games before Tuesday.

Weaver (2-10), who lost his fourth consecutive start, got four consecutive outs to begin the game before he walked Casey Kotchman on four pitches. Then he threw an 89 mph fastball to Matthews, who sent that gift over the shrubs beyond straightaway center field for his 11th homer of the season.

Weaver stood with hands on hips and yelled at himself. His manager, John McLaren, later said he was “trying to settle him down a little bit.”

But Weaver was yelling again three pitches later when Izturis turned on a high pitch for his second home run this season. His first homer since April 29 landed 10 rows into the right-field bleachers to make it 3-0.

The fourth run of the inning came after Jeff Mathis, the No. 8 hitter, doubled and Weaver walked Reggie Willits and Chone Figgins consecutively. Cabrera scored Mathis with a groundout.

The lead became 6-0 in the fourth. Willits singled and moved to third on single by Figgins. Figgins stole second and scored behind Willits on Cabrera’s chopper over the head of shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt, who was playing in with the rest of the infield.

“They came back with a vengeance from yesterday and made me pay for trying to be too fine,” Weaver said.