ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The Los Angeles Angels tried something different Sunday, and it worked, which seemed like an upset for a team that had so much go wrong last week.
Looking to ease pressure on an underachieving rotation, manager Brad Ausmus employed reliever Hansel Robles as an "opener" against the Seattle Mariners and replaced the right-hander with original starter Jaime Barria in the second inning.
Robles, making his first start in his 235th career game, retired the side in order in the first, and Barria allowed only one run and four hits in five innings while facing the top batters in the order only twice.
Tommy La Stella hit two solo homers, giving him six _ a career-high _ on the season. Kevan Smith and Brian Goodwin also homered, and the Angels snapped a six-game losing streak with an 8-6 victory before an announced crowd of 34,155 in Angel Stadium.
The decision to use Robles as an opener and Barria in long relief was spurred by concerns about a rotation that has provided little length or production three weeks into the season.
Angels starting pitchers entered the game with a 6.19 ERA, the second-worst mark in baseball behind the Boston Red Sox, and had thrown 100 1/3 innings in 21 games, an average of 4 2/3 innings per start.
"We had been talking about it for a little while," Ausmus said before the game. "It's a way to actually extend the starter (because he) doesn't have to face the top part of the lineup, which is generally the best part of the lineup.
"When he starts to go through the middle of the lineup a third time ... it's more toward the middle or bottom half. That's the idea. In theory, you can get more use out of your starter. And Robles is one of our better relief arms. We want someone who can get those better hitters out."
Robles needed only 13 pitches to complete the first inning before giving way to Barria, who, with the help of his defense, escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the second. Ryon Healy was hit by a pitch and took third on Tom Murphy's double to left. Dee Gordon flied to medium right. Healy held at third, but Murphy strayed too far off the bag at second. First baseman Justin Bour cut off Kole Calhoun's throw from the outfield and threw to second to nail Murphy to end the inning.
The Angels took their first lead of the four-game series in the second when Goodwin led off with a walk and Smith got just enough of his barrel on a 91-mph inside fastball from Mike Leake to send a two-run home run over the center-field wall.
The Mariners sliced it to 2-1 in the third when Mitch Haniger doubled to center with two out and Domingo Santana lined a run-scoring single that nearly hit Barria in the face on its way to center field.
Barria retired the next eight batters before Santana's one-out hit in the sixth, and he got more defensive help when center fielder Mike Trout fielded Santana's hit in the right-center field gap, spun and fired a one-hop throw to shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who applied the tag on Santana at second.
The Angels pushed the lead to 3-1 in the fourth when La Stella lined a two-out solo homer to right. Goodwin's two-out homer to center made it 4-1 in the sixth.
Ty Buttrey escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the seventh when he got Mallex Smith to ground into a fielder's choice, and the Angels tacked on two runs in the bottom of the inning on Bour's RBI single and Simmons' RBI double off reliever Shawn Armstrong.
La Stella lined the first pitch of the eighth inning over the wall in right-center, tying him with Trout for the team lead in home runs and giving him six homers in 30 at-bats over his past 11 games. Calhoun's RBI double made it 8-1.
The huge cushion proved needed. The Mariners rallied for five runs in the ninth when Murphy hit a two-run homer and Gordon hit a solo shot off Noe Ramirez and Haniger hit a two-run homer off Cody Allen.
Allen then walked Santana and was pulled in favor of right-hander Luis Garcia, who got Edwin Encarnacion to pop out and end the game.
