Bryan Woo posted his American League-leading 21st quality start of the season and struck out a career-high 13 batters as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Los Angeles Angels 5-3 on Saturday night.
J.P. Crawford homered as the Mariners (81-68) won their eighth in a row to remain tied with Houston atop the AL West and two games ahead of Texas for the league’s third and final wild-card berth.
Jo Adell and Taylor Ward went deep for the Angels (69-80), who lost their third in a row.
Woo (14-7) pitched six innings and gave up two runs on three hits with one walk. The right-hander retired the final 13 batters he faced.
Luke Jackson, Caleb Ferguson and Matt Brash each pitched an inning of relief to close out the victory. Brash earned his fourth save of the season despite allowing Ward’s leadoff homer — the first earned run surrendered by Seattle’s bullpen during its winning streak.
The Mariners took the lead in the bottom of the first. With one out, Cal Raleigh was hit by a pitch and Julio Rodriguez doubled to left. Jorge Polanco drove in both runners with a double into the right field corner.
The Angels responded in the second. Adell led off with a homer to left-center field. Christian Moore drew a walk and, with two outs, Sebastian Rivero and Bryce Teodosio lined singles to right, the latter tying the score at 2-2. Woo fanned Mike Trout to end the inning and didn’t allow another baserunner.
The Mariners regained the lead on Crawford’s solo shot to right-center off rookie left-hander Mitch Farris (1-1) with two outs in the fourth.
Farris, making just his third start, was charged with five runs on five hits over four-plus innings, with four walks and seven strikeouts.
Raleigh led off the fifth with a bloop single to center and Rodriguez and Polanco walked to load the bases with no outs. The Angels brought in Chase Silseth, who caught Eugenio Suarez looking at a called third strike for the first out. Josh Naylor fouled off eight straight pitches, seven with two strikes, before taking a pitch in the dirt and then grounding a two-run single through the right side of the infield to make it 5-2.
