SEATTLE _ The Angels were hitless in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings of Thursday night's 9-3 victory over the Seattle Mariners in T-Mobile Park, which is no reflection on how they've been swinging the bats in recent days.
Their arms were probably tired, and they needed a break.
One day after amassing 12 runs and 16 hits in a win at Oakland, the Angels racked up eight runs and 12 hits in the first five innings against the hapless Mariners, who have lost 24 of 30 games since April 27 and are 11-33 since their 13-2 start.
Three singles in the ninth pushed the Angels' hit total to 15.
Mike Trout continued to emerge from a monthlong funk with two hits and three RBIs, Cesar Puello homered as part of a three-hit night, and Kole Calhoun hit a solo homer and an RBI single as the Angels scored in each of the first five innings, the first time they've opened a game with five crooked numbers since a July 15, 2015, game at Texas.
Felix Pena allowed three runs and three hits in 51/3 innings, striking out eight, walking three and throwing a career-high 102 pitches, 64 for strikes, to improve to 3-1 with a 3.42 ERA.
Pena entered in the second inning after Luis Garcia allowed a hit in a scoreless first, giving the Angels seven scoreless innings in the nine games they've used an "opener" this season.
Pena initially struggled with his command. Of his first 16 pitches, 11 were balls, the right-hander missing the strike zone on six straight pitches at one point.
With two on, one out and a full count on Jay Bruce, Ausmus came to the mound for a lengthy chat with Pena.
The timing of the mound visit _ in the middle of an at-bat _ and the initiator of the meeting _ the manager, not the pitching coach_seemed odd.
Whatever Ausmus said worked.
Pena struck out Kyle Seager looking at a knee-high fastball and whiffed Tim Beckham with a nasty slider, starting a string in which he retired nine straight batters before walking Bruce and giving up a two-run homer to Beckham in the fifth.
An eight-run lead helped cushion the blow.
As bad as the Angels' starting pitching has been _ their rotation entered Thursday with a 5.61 ERA, the third worst in baseball _ the Mariners have been far worse over the past month.
With Thursday night's 31/3-inning, 10-hit, six-run effort by left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, Seattle starters have combined to go 5-19 with a 6.66 ERA since April 27, the third-highest ERA in the major leagues over that span.
Kikuchi struggled to find the strike zone in the first inning, walking David Fletcher and Trout to open the game and giving up an RBI single to Albert Pujols that rocketed off the first baseman's bat at 112 mph.
Then Kikuchi found too much of the strike zone, grooving a 92-mph fastball on a three-and-one count to Calhoun, who drove a 417-foot solo homer to right-center field _ his 11th of the season_to lead off the second.
Dustin Garneau and Fletcher singled and Trout flared an RBI single to right for a 3-0 lead.
Puello, who went three for six and hit his first career homer in his Angels debut on Wednesday, drove a two-out solo homer to right in the third to make the score 4-0, making him the first Angels outfielder to homer in each of his first two games of a season since Tim Salmon in 1995.
The Angels knocked out Kikuchi in the fourth when Garneau and Luis Rengifo singled and Trout shot a two-run double down the left-field line for a 6-0 lead. Kikuchi threw 73 pitches. The Angels swung and missed on one of them.
The starter was replaced by right-hander David McKay, who gave up a two-run double to Rengifo that pushed the Angels' lead to 8-0 in the fifth.
Pena was pulled after a walk and a one-out double by Bruce in the seventh and was charged with a run on Beckham's RBI groundout.
Right-hander Jake Jewell threw 22/3 scoreless relief innings with two strikeouts.
