Angels Dismantle Mariners, Win Series Opener 11-3

After taking two of three from the New York Yankees this past weekend, the Angels welcomed the Seattle Mariners to town, and wasted no time in jumping all over M’s starter Aaron Harang. The Mariners starter hasn’t had much success against the halos so far this season, and had a career record of 0-3 with an 8.02 ERA against the Angels coming into the game.

The Angels got on the board first thanks to a first inning RBI double of the bat of should-be-starting-the-All-Star-game Howie Kendrick. In the second inning, the Angels some distance between themselves and their opponent. Mike Trout brought home Alberto Callaspo with a sacrifice fly. Josh Hamilton followed up Trout with his 10th home run of the season. A two-run job to center field that went off the end of Michael Saunders glove.

Starter Jason Vargas, staked to an early lead, seemed to be on cruise control when he ran into a bump in the road in the third inning. With two outs, Endy Chavez blooped a lucky base hit that landed on the third base foul line in shallow left field. That was followed up by a two-run home run from Nick Franklin, cutting the Angels lead in half.

The score remained 4-2 until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Angels offense exploded. Albert Pujols got the run scoring started with an RBI double to right field bringing home Peter Bourjos. Three batters later, Erick Aybar reached on an infield single that brought home Mike Trout. Alberto Callaspo followed that up with another RBI single, bringing home two runs. The inning’s scoring was capped off by an RBI single off of the bat of Chris Iannetta and a gift run thanks to a throwing error by Nick Franklin.

The seven run outburst made the score 11-2, and by the eighth inning, Mike Scioscia had removed most of the starters to give them the rest of the night off.

The Mariners would plate one more run on a Kendrys Morales ground out, but this game had been long over by that time. Jason Vargas got the win, and the Angels moved to 4-1 in their last five games and 32-39 on the season.

The Angels are back it tomorrow night at 7:05 PM PST. Angels fans will be holding their collective breath when Joe Blanton takes the mound opposite Jeremy Bonderman. Light up the Halo, the 21 hits the Angels registered should make it extra bright.