ANAHEIM, Calif. _ There was no avoiding this result. A key first-inning error, stranded runners as a result of failed at-bats with runners in scoring position and more struggles from reliever Nick Vincent couldn't be overcome or hidden, no matter how poor the opponent.
Add it all up and the Seattle Mariners left Anaheim and their American League West road trip with a disappointing and deserved 6-4 loss to the Angels.
A winning record on a road trip is a positive. But this trip against two listing divisional opponents had the potential to be so much more. Instead, Seattle settled for a 2-2 split in the four game series and a 4-3 record on the seven-game swing to fall to 64-56.
Treading water against bad teams isn't ideal.
The Mariners got a solid start from pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma. The veteran right-hander worked seven innings, giving up three runs (two earned) with a walk and two strikeouts.
That one unearned run came in the first inning where the Angels scored two runs, but realistically should have none. It erased a 1-0 first-inning lead compliments of Robinson Cano's 27th homer of the season off Angels' starter Matt Shoemaker. The first-pitch solo shot was his 10th homer on the first pitch of an at-bat _ tied for most in the American League with Baltimore's Chris Davis.
With one out and runners on first and second, Albert Pujols hit a high-bouncing ground ball to Kyle Seager. While his last play of Wednesday night was a gorgeous, game-saving diving stop to secure a win, this one was a misplayed routine double play ball that should've ended the inning.
The ball bounced off the end of Seager's glove and into the outfield. Instead of an easy double play with sloth-like speed of Pujols going down the line, it scored a run on the play and kept the inning alive, allowing Andrelton Simmons to follow with an RBI single to make it 2-1.
Iwakuma had retired a string of 11 Angels when Jett Bandy took advantage of a first-pitch slider over the plate, yanking it over the wall in left for his eighth homer of the season and second in the series. The solo shot pushed the lead to 3-1.
Seattle cut the lead to one run in the sixth inning when Nelson Cruz launched a towering moonshot over the wall in deep left-center for a solo homer. It was his 31st of the season.
Down 3-2, Vincent replaced Iwakuma to pitch the eighth. But for the second time in the series, he struggled, giving up three runs in the inning, including a two-run double to Pujols, who hit a three-run homer off him on Tuesday.
Down 6-2, the Mariners made it somewhat interesting in the ninth. Adam Lind singled and Mike Zunino followed with an opposite field homer to right to make it 6-4. But there was no more comeback magic.
