Haren, Callaspo lead Angels to 4-2 win over Mariners and four-game sweep
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Dan Haren gave up two runs and five hits in 8 2/3 innings, and Alberto Callaspo hit a tie-breaking two-run double in the bottom of the eighth to lift the Angels to a 4-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium on Sunday.
Haren (10-5) was one out away from his second consecutive complete game, but Manager Mike Scioscia pulled him with two outs and a runner on second base. Haren’s walk to the dugout was accompanied by a rousing standing ovation from a crowd of 39,505. Closer Jordan Walden came in and struck out Franklin Gutierrez with a 99-mph fastball on a 3-and-2 count for his 20th save.
The win completed a four-game sweep for the Angels, who have won eight of their last nine games and are 14-3 in their last 17 games. They’re also 58-26 against Seattle since 2007, the most wins against any opponent during that span.
With the score tied, 2-2, Torii Hunter, who made a superb diving catch of Dustin Ackley’s fly ball to right field in the third inning, led off with a single to left field off reliever David Pauley.
Hunter took second on Bobby Abreu’s grounder to second, and Vernon Wells struck out for the second out. With first base open, Howie Kendrick was walked intentionally.
Callaspo, who singled in his first two at-bats, drove a double to right-center field to score Hunter and Kendrick and give the Angels a 4-2 lead.
Haren took a 17 1/3-innings scoreless streak into the game, but that was snapped in the first when Brendan Ryan singled with one out, Ackley walked, both advanced on Justin Smoak’s fly to center and scored on Adam Kennedy’s soft single to left.
The Mariners would have been limited to one run in the inning if 19-year-old center fielder Mike Trout, in his third big league game, had thrown to second instead of to the cut-off man, who was lined up with third base, on Smoak’s fly.
That would have likely held Ackley to first, but instead, Ackley moved into scoring position on the fly ball and came home on Kennedy’s hit.
Haren held the Mariners scoreless over the next seven innings, retiring 21 of 24 batters before Ackley’s double to lead off the ninth inning.
The Angels tied the score, 2-2, in the fourth inning when Callaspo singled to right and Mark Trumbo hit a two-run home run to left, his team-leading 17th of the season and third in three games.
The rookie first baseman’s 17 homers are the most by an Angels rookie before the All-Star break since Tim Salmon hit 17 in 1993. The club record for homers by a rookie before the break is 20, set by Wally Joyner in 1986.
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--Mike DiGiovanna