Mariners fall four back of Angels

SEATTLE – Handed a five-run lead after the first inning Tuesday night, Jeff Weaver’s job for the Seattle Mariners was to hold the Los Angeles Angels down.

Weaver didn’t.

Handed new life because of that, three Angels relief pitchers did.

In a game the Mariners hope they won’t look back on and cringe – if not cry – the Angels rallied to tie the score off Weaver with runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Then they won it with solid relief and four runs in the eighth inning for a 10-6 victory at Safeco Field.

The Mariners blew Angels starter Ervin Santana from the game with five runs in the first, then managed only five hits and a run the rest of the game off relievers Dustin Moseley, Justin Speier and Scot Shields.

The Angels, meanwhile, thrashed Weaver and five Mariners relievers for 14 hits.

“They just kept coming after us,” Mariners manager John McLaren said. “They got pitches to hit and they hit them.”

It’s too early to say the Mariners are losing their grasp on a playoff berth, but the loss was their fourth straight, including two in this critical series against the first-place Angels.

The M’s are four games behind the Angels in the American League West Division. They also lost a game in the A.L. wild-card standings, which they lead by one over the New York Yankees.

For three innings, the game was pure joy for most of the 44,395 at Safeco Field.

The five runs were the Mariners’ biggest first-inning output this season and knocked Santana from the game after he’d recorded just one out.

Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff triple, Jose Vidro walked and Jose Guillen doubled to score both runners. Raul Ibanez walked and Adrian Beltre lined a double down the right-field line, scoring two more, and Kenji Johjima singled to center for the fifth run.

The good times continued in the second, when Weaver silenced the Angels 1-2-3.

Moseley, who relieved Santana and got Willie Bloomquist and Yuniesky Betancourt on fly outs to snuff the Mariners’ big first inning, continued his work the next 4 2/3 innings. He allowed only two baserunners through the fifth and was pulled with two outs and a runner on second base in the sixth.

By then, the score was tied 5-5.