Angels and Mariners have a sucking contest, Angels blink first

Angels 6, Mariners 2

For the first eight innings, only Ty Buttrey was immune. To the stir of lifelessness that was present at Safeco Field (who cares if they don’t call it that anymore), the baseball players going through the motions. The offenses, waving around their bats as if they were heavy sticks instead of tools used to do damage. Buttrey punched out three hitters on eleven pitches. It’s amazing what he can do on rest.

The Mariners first scratched out two runs off Griffin Canning. There were the usual suspects. Dee Gordon sacrifice fly. Omar Narvaez RBI single. It appeared that Canning was heading for another subpar start. But he righted himself and afforded the Angels the opportunity to tie the game. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and surprisingly got two runs out of it, needing a Kevan Smith RBI single with two outs.

Meanwhile, Tim Beckham, the shortstop, was playing in left field. He did a pretty decent job. Then he moved to first base. He did a less-than-decent job. With the score tied at two, in the top of the ninth, Luis Rengifo floated a ball way up there, and Beckham just lost it. It gave the Angels new life, and David Fletcher somehow slapped this pitch for an RBI single:

Oh yeah, and Mike Trout. He’s pretty good.

Those runs were enough to get Rahul Setty, in Las Vegas on his 21st birthday, a win on the $20 he plopped down on the Halos.

Oh yeah, and apparently the Mariners shifted Albert Pujols.

By placing three defenders on the left right of the infield. Go figure. Mariners.