The Seattle Mariners were on a five-game winning streak, and had a pitcher on the mound who was making his first major league start. A season ago, that would have been trouble for Los Angeles, and it was for a while on Thursday, But the Angels finally broke through in the sixth, when they were able to put five runs on the board to get a 5-1 win in Seattle.
The Angels didn't do so well against pitchers they hadn't been able to scout last season, and went 0-4 against them in five tries. It was a struggle in this one as well, before a couple of singles in the sixth chased starter Chris Jakubauskas, who had held the Angels scoreless through the first five.
Once they got to reliever Roy Corcoran, the scoring came much easier.
After Chone Figgins was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice, the Angels scored five runs on four consecutive singles to put the game out of reach. It was the only inning where they were able to score all night, and all the runs came with two outs.
Joe Saunders allowed just one earned run and three hits in seven innings of work, and was mostly dominant on a personally emotional night. Besides the fact that he was unable to attend the funeral for Nick Adenhart, Saunders was dealing with the second anniversary of the shootings that took place on the Virginia Tech campus, where he went to school.
"It was a tough night for me and the organization because we laid to rest Nick, and I couldn't be there," said Saunders, a former Virginia Tech standout. "But my mom was able to go to the service, and that was special for me and my family.
"It was also the second anniversary of the shootings [that claimed 33 lives] at Virginia Tech. So I dedicate this to Nick and to Hokie Nation."
