Chris Flexen continued his mastery at T-Mobile Park as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Los Angeles Angels 2-0 Saturday night.
Flexen (8-3) pitched seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball, with two walks and six strikeouts. The right-hander improved to 6-2 at home, where his ERA is 1.76.
Drew Steckenrider struck out the side in the eighth and fellow right-hander Paul Sewald worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save of the season.
Seattle’s Luis Torrens went 2 for 3 with a triple and drove in a run. The Mariners have won the first two games of the series and will try to complete a sweep Sunday afternoon before heading into the All-Star break.
Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani, who leads the majors with 33 home runs, went 0 for 3 with a walk and struck out twice, including leading off the ninth inning.
Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval (2-3) took the loss. Sandoval allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings, with two walks and six strikeouts.
The Mariners broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning. Mitch Haniger led off with a walk and, an out later, advanced to third when Torrens grounded a single into right field. Jake Fraley hit a grounder to second baseman David Fletcher, who threw out Torrens at second, but Fraley was able to beat out the throw from shortstop Jose Iglesias to avoid the inning-ending double play and allow Haniger to score.
Seattle’s J.P. Crawford led off the sixth with a bunt single but was thrown out trying to reach second. Haniger then grounded a single into right field. Ty France grounded into a force out, with Fletcher and Iglesias colliding at second base in an attempt to turn a double play. Torrens followed by lining a two-out triple to right to score France and make it 2-0.
The Mariners loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth on a single by France and two walks, but Angels left-hander Alex Claudio got Shed Long Jr. to ground out to end the threat.
–Field Level Media