Hunter rescues Angels
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Torii Hunter’s day started with bump – to his new Bentley. It ended with a catch – a homer-saving grab with two outs in the ninth inning on a drive by Richie Sexson.
Hunter shrugged off the stiffness in his neck and back from the fender-bender on the way to the ballpark to make the catch that preserved the Los Angeles Angels’ 5-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.
“That was sweet, man,” Hunter said. “You can’t beat taking a home run away. That probably could have been the game-winner, so I’m pretty excited about that – winning the game with my glove. Things started off pretty rough today and it was pretty frustrating, so I went out there and tried to take it out on them in the game.”
Hunter also doubled in each of his first three times up, driving in three runs with his first two-base hit about 5 hours after getting rear-ended by a driver talking on a hands-free cell phone. The seven-time Gold Glove winner was waiting at a stop light when the accident occurred. No one was injured.
“I haven’t had an accident in 15 years. Then I come to L.A.,” said Hunter, who signed a five-year, $90 million contract with the Angels in November. “I tried to treat myself (to the Bentley) a couple of weeks ago, and look what happened.”
Sexson, who already had driven in four runs with a pair of homers against lefty Joe Saunders (3-0), hit a towering drive off Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez. Hunter, known for his home run-stealing catches, timed his leap and came down with the ball and a big smile.
“I think it was over the fence, but not by much,” Hunter said. “He hit it pretty high. … If it was close, I was getting it.”
Rodriguez, pitching for the fifth time in six days, barely earned his seventh save.
“That was the greatest catch I’ve ever seen,” said Rodriguez.
Saunders allowed four runs and six hits over eight innings with two strikeouts and no walks. All the runs against the left-hander came on Sexson’s homers. Sexson left with his 24th multihomer game.
“I thought that I got enough of it,” Sexson said. “It was going over the fence, that’s the bottom line. The ball doesn’t travel as well here at night, but it was going out. Torii, he’s the best. You almost come to expect stuff like that from him.”
R.A. Dickey (0-1) gave up singles to his first two batters before walking DH Vladimir Guerrero, back after missing a game with a swollen right index finger.
Hunter then lined a 1-2 pitch down the left-field line, continued to third on shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt’s relay throw to the plate and tried to score when the ball got past catcher Kenji Johjima. But Dickey backed up the play and threw to Johjima for the tag on Hunter.
Hunter doubled his next time up, a slicing drive to right-center that grazed center fielder Ichiro Suzuki’s glove as he attempted a diving catch. In the sixth, Hunter hit a drive to the fence in left-center to tie a franchise record for most doubles in a game.