Balentien belt lifts Mariners
ANAHEIM, Calif. – Wladimir Balentien hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 12th inning after striking out four times, and the Seattle Mariners pulled out a 10-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night.
Raul Ibanez greeted Justin Speier (1-5) with a leadoff double and advanced on Adrian Beltre’s groundout. After an intentional walk to Jose Lopez and a flyout, Balentien drove a 1-1 pitch to center field out of the reach of Torii Hunter, who leaped at the wall. It was his sixth homer of the season.
Roy Corcoran (3-0) allowed one hit over three innings to get the win.
Ibanez was 4 for 5, including a solo homer in the sixth and an RBI single that capped a three-run ninth against Francisco Rodriguez. The Angels’ closer, who also gave up a tying two-run double to Jeremy Reed, got a rare hook from manager Mike Scioscia after getting only one out.
Rodriguez had a few choice words for plate umpire Gerry Davis on his way to the dugout and was ejected for the first time in his seven-year career. The three-time All-Star, who was attempting to tie his club record for saves, instead absorbed his fifth blown opportunity in 51 attempts. Four of them have come at Angel Stadium.
Mark Teixeira, who gave the Angels a 3-1 lead in the third with a two-run homer against Felix Hernandez, hit another leading off the bottom of the ninth against closer J.J. Putz. It was Teixeira’s 21st multihomer game and third this season.
Putz, making his first appearance since Saturday, blew his third save in four attempts, and his seventh in 14 tries altogether.
The Mariners, who came in with the second-worst record in baseball, also rallied from a run down in the seventh and eighth innings. Ichiro Suzuki got them even in the seventh with a run-scoring groundout, and Jeff Clement made it 4-all in the eighth with an RBI single against Scot Shields.
The Angels took a 6-4 lead in the bottom half with back-to-back sacrifice flies by Juan Rivera and Jeff Mathis.
Angels starter Ervin Santana, looking for his 15th win, was charged with three runs and seven hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Hernandez gave up four runs and eight hits over seven innings and struck out eight. The right-hander allowed more than three earned runs for the first time in his last 12 starts.
Hernandez also made a couple of dazzling defensive plays to end the second and fourth innings.
Notes
The Mariners have allowed at least seven runs in six of their last eight games. … Ichiro has only two RBIs in 50 at-bats against the Angels this season. The two-time A.L. batting champ needs 45 hits in Seattle’s final 42 games to match Wee Willie Keeler’s record of eight consecutive 200-hit seasons. … Jose Vidro, who was designated for assignment by the Mariners on Aug. 5, was placed on irrevocable waivers for the purpose of giving him his unconditional release. Vidro is in his 12th big league season. … Seattle is 29 1/2 games out of first place with 1 1/2 months of the schedule still remaining. The Mariners’ largest deficit in franchise history at the end of a season was in 1983, when they finished 39 games behind the Chicago White Sox with a 60-102 record.