ANAHEIM, Calif. — Cliff Pennington hit a go-ahead triple in the eighth inning, Albert Pujols slugged his 22nd home run and the Los Angeles Angels came back twice to beat the Seattle Mariners 7-6 on Tuesday night and end an 11-game losing streak.
With two outs in the eighth, Jefry Marte turned on a 97 mph fastball from Arquimedes Caminero (2-3) and it drove into the stands to tie it 6-6. Jett Bandy kept the inning alive with a single, and Pennington sent him home with just his second triple since 2014.
Fernando Salas pitched a scoreless ninth for his third save, and Brett Oberholtzer (3-2) earned the win with a scoreless eighth. The Angels’ 11-game streak tied a franchise worst.
The Mariners went ahead in the seventh when reliever J.C. Ramirez threw two wild pitches and overthrew first base on a routine groundout.
An error by Pennington put Robinson Cano on base and Ramirez then walked Nelson Cruz. With Kyle Seager batting, Ramirez threw his wild pitches, allowing Cano to come home and tie the game and Cruz to reach third. Cruz scored when Ramirez threw Mike Zunino’s grounder past Marte at first base.
Down 4-1 in the sixth, Ariel Miranda, who started in place of the injured James Paxton, walked Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout before being relieved by Nick Vincent. Vincent left a 1-2 fastball up for Pujols, who hit it well over the wall in left-center. Pujols, baseball’s active home run leader with 582, is now one shy of tying with former teammate Mark McGwire for 10th on the career list. Vincent, gave up a home run to Bandy two batters later that put the Angels up 5-4.
The Mariners scored three runs in the second inning to go up 4-1. After Cano scored on a single by Cruz with two outs in the fifth, Jhoulys Chacin was removed for Jose Valdez after being charged with four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings.
