George Kirby pitched seven strong innings as the Seattle Mariners edged the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 on Saturday night in Anaheim, Calif.
Julio Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs for the Mariners, who won their fourth game in a row to remain 2 1/2 games behind Toronto in the race for the American League’s third and final wild-card spot.
Randal Grichuk homered for the Angels, who lost their fifth consecutive game and dropped six back in the wild-card chase.
Kirby (10-8) allowed one run on three hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out five.
Trailing 3-1, the Angels tried to rally with two outs in the ninth off new Mariners closer Andres Munoz.
C.J. Cron walked and Mike Moustakas grounded a single to right field. Brandon Drury hit a drive to left that bounced off the warning track and over the fence for a ground-rule double, preventing pinch runner Andrew Velazquez from almost assuredly scoring from first. Munoz went on to strike out Hunter Renfroe for his fifth save of the season.
The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and grounded into a double play.
Both teams scored in the third.
With one out in the top of the inning, Dylan Moore doubled to right-center field. J.P. Crawford drew a two-out walk and Rodriguez followed with a double off the top of the left field wall, scoring both runners.
In the bottom of the inning, Grichuk hit a solo shot to left center with one out to pull the Angels within 2-1.
The only other hits Kirby allowed were one-out singles to Mickey Moniak in the fifth and Luis Rengifo in the sixth, both on grounders up the middle.
The Mariners tacked on a run in the eighth as Rodriguez reached on a one-out infield single and Eugenio Suarez walked. With two outs, Ty France lined a run-scoring single to right to make it 3-1.
Angels starter Tyler Anderson (5-3) went five innings and allowed two runs on two hits. The lefty walked three and struck out six.
–Field Level Media
