ANAHEIM, Calif.—From 10 runs to zero in 24 hours, and their cleanup hitter was forced out of the game because of knee pain.
The Seattle Mariners’ hit-producing, run-scoring machine of an offense from Friday night was absent from Angels Stadium on Saturday night.
Veteran right-hander Ricky Nolasco quieted the Mariners with an assortment of pitches, none of them straight, most flirting with the edge of the strike zone and few of them hit hard by aggressive Seattle hitters.
The result?
Nolasco tossed a crisp three-hit shutout, leading the Angels to an easy 4-0 victory over Seattle.
It certainly wasn’t expected. Nolasco came into the game with a 3-9 record and a 4.86 ERA. He had allowed runs in every one of his outings up until his most recent start on June 26 when he threw 61/3 shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was the sixth shutout of his career. His last came against the Oakland A’s on Sept. 27 of last season.
It was the seventh time this season that Seattle has been shutout.
Mariners cleanup hitter Nelson Cruz celebrated his 37th birthday by being removed from the game with pain in his right knee. Cruz hit a rocket of line drive off the center-field wall in the second inning, but he was thrown out at second as he limped noticeably into the base.
The Mariners got a decent start from right-hander Sam Gaviglio, who pitched 61/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.
In the second inning, Gaviglio hung a 1-1 slider to Andrelton Simmons. The lithe, Gold-Glove shortstop showed some decent pop in his bat, taking a vicious swing at the cookie of a pitch and hammering it into the rocks beyond the wall in left center for a solo homer.
The Angels pushed the lead to 2-0 in the third. Ben Revere led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a ground-ball out to the right side and scored on Cameron Maybin’s line-drive single up the middle. Gaviglio seemed doomed for more trouble when he walked Kole Calhoun. But he coaxed a routine, inning-ending 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Albert Pujols to end the inning.
Gaviglio retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced before being lifted with one out in the seventh. That one runner he didn’t retire was a leadoff single to Yunel Escobar to start the seventh. With one out and Escobar on first and Gaviglio at 81 pitches, manager Scott Servais called on lefty Marc Rzepczynski to replace Gaviglio.
Seattle’s lefty specialist promptly gave up a double to lefty-swinging Luis Valbuena and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch. Rzepczynski allowed another run to score on a fielder’s choice to make it 4-0.
It was more than enough cushion against a Mariners’ team that had nothing going at the plate.
