George Kirby pitched eight strong innings and Cole Young hit two home runs as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Los Angeles Angels 6-2 on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.
The win improved Seattle's record to 43-43, keeping them a half-game behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West.
Kirby earned his seventh win of the season, allowing two runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven over 100 pitches.
Angels rookie Ryan Johnson took the loss, allowing three runs (one earned) over five innings, dropping his record to 1-3.
Los Angeles took an early 2-0 lead.
Zach Neto drove in a run with a single in the first inning and hit a solo home run, his 18th of the season, in the third inning off Kirby.
Seattle responded in the bottom of the third when Cole Young hit a solo home run.
In the fourth, Cal Raleigh drove in two runs with a single after a fielding error by Angels third baseman Denzer Guzman.
Angels manager Kurt Suzuki praised Johnson's performance despite the defensive miscue.
"I thought R. J.
pitched really good today," Suzuki said.
"He got ahead, he threw a lot of strikes, first-pitch strikes, which is huge for him, and he really limited hard contact."
The error occurred when a slow ground ball hit by Josh Naylor slipped past Guzman into left field, allowing the tying and go-ahead runs to score.
"I saw the ball spinning, I went to charge it, and that's part of the game," Guzman said.
"Things happen."
Both Suzuki and Johnson noted the unusual spin on the grounder complicated the play.
"It looked like a tough play," Johnson said. "That spin on it is going to make things hard, and definitely where he was positioned, too.
He just kind of hit it in a tough spot, so even if he fields it cleanly, I don't even know where the runner was at.
Could he have beat it out? I don't know.
Tough play, but that's not the reason why I gave up runs.
I still put guys on base, they still got hits, they still did their job as hitters."
The Mariners extended their lead in the sixth inning against reliever Mitch Farris. Dominic Canzone hit a leadoff home run, and Young added a two-out, two-run blast.
The Angels struggled with runners in scoring position, finishing 1 for 8, as Kirby and reliever José A.
Ferrer shut down the offense.
"I feel like our at-bats were awesome," Suzuki said. "All night, I felt like we were hitting the ball hard.
A lot of hard contact tonight. Not a lot of swing and miss.
We just couldn't cash them in."
Suzuki credited Kirby for executing pitches when the Angels had runners on base.
"To Kirby's credit, when he got traffic on, he executed pitches," Suzuki said. "That's what good pitchers do."
The three-game series continues Tuesday with Los Angeles sending right-hander Walbert Ureña to the mound against Seattle right-hander Bryce Miller.
