M's beat Rangers, clinching AL West title for Angels

The sight of J.J. Putz closing out the ninth on a day the American League West champion was crowned was something Mariners fans dreamed of back in April.

But the latest save for Putz, who nailed down a perfect inning on a day there weren't many of those on either side, was accompanied by only the smallest of celebrations. This 8-7 win by a cobbled-together group of seven Mariners relief pitchers, who outlasted a home-run happy Texas Rangers squad on Wednesday afternoon, had far greater implications in California than it did here.

That's because the Seattle victory, coupled with an earlier Los Angeles Angels victory in Anaheim, enabled the Halos to clinch their fourth division title in five years. They showed the final outs of this game on the ballpark video scoreboard in Anaheim, which is at least a small improvement over the Mariners having to see their opponent celebrate live these next few days.

"You don't want to have them celebrate in your face," Putz said. "But they've played well all season."

The Mariners now play a four-game series in Anaheim, where they watched firsthand as the Angels clinched the division title against them last season. A year earlier, it was the Oakland Athletics dancing jubilantly at Safeco Field, having won the division with a victory over the Mariners.

Not that this year represents any sort of improvement.

The Mariners finished the homestand with a winning record by surviving two-run homers from Nelson Cruz and Taylor Teagarden in the fifth inning, Marlon Byrd in the sixth and a monstrous solo shot off the glass of the Hit It Here Café in right field by Chris Davis in the eighth. By then, a four-hit outing by Raul Ibanez, including two doubles to go with two singles, had combined with a four-single effort from Ichiro to give the Mariners enough of a cushion to hang on.

Putz retired old home-run nemesis Ramon Vazquez in the ninth, aided by a strong glove snare from diving third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo on a hard grounder, as part of a 1-2-3 inning that hasn't come nearly enough this season.

"I feel pretty good right now," said Putz, whose 99th career save passed Mike Schooler for second on the team's all-time list. "I'm able to throw all the pitches for strikes. Unfortunately, it's September right now. It might have been nice to throw all of the pitches in April."

Many of the 23,644 fans on-hand to witness a game that took on the aura of a spring-training affair would no doubt agree with Putz on that and other issues. It simply took the Mariners too long to get anything going this season, leading to the Angels running away with a division Seattle had hoped to contend for.

Instead, the Mariners are 30 ½ games out of first place and earn most of their victories in moral fashion these days by managing not to look too terrible.

"We're just trying to win ballgames," manager Jim Riggleman said of having avoided any live AL West celebrations by the Angels. "We won the game. Hopefully, we can just win as many as we can."

This latest mound adventure, courtesy of injured starters Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn, saw the Mariners trying to get work for some of their rusty relief pitchers rather than turn to an innings-eater like R.A. Dickey.

They got three good ones from Cesar Jimenez, building a 4-0 lead in the process. But that vanished in the span of four batters in the fifth when Cruz and Teagarden teed off on Jared Wells. Ibanez hit his second double of the game to start a two-run rally and put Seattle up 6-4 in the bottom of the fifth, but Jake Woods yielded a two-run blast in the sixth on the only pitch he threw.

Ibanez singled to score Ichiro with another go-ahead run in the sixth. Seattle added one in the seventh, then survived the Davis blast off Miguel Batista in the eighth to make a winner out of Roy Corcoran. In the clubhouse afterward, Ibanez shrugged when asked about avoiding watching the Angels celebrate firsthand.

"You want to be the team celebrating, but you don't want to be the team they're celebrating on," said Ibanez, whose three runs batted in gave him 105 for the year to go with a .310 average. "That part of it's nice. But everybody knows the Angels were going to be celebrating anyway."

Notes

• A handful of select Mariners "rookies," including Mark Lowe, donned clown costumes and women's denim skirts as they prepared for the team's final road trip of the season. Some first-year Mariners were initiated last September as call-ups, but Lowe was injured in 2006 and also not around last year when the dress-up day arrived.

"How do I look?" Tuiasosopo asked as he put on a yellow helicopter cap, clown nose and pink flowered blouse.

Along with Lowe and Tuiasosopo, Justin Thomas, Tug Hulett, Bryan LaHair and Wells also had to sport the outfits.

• Adrian Beltre flew to Los Angeles ahead of the team Tuesday and is to rejoin the squad there today. Before the game, he is to consult with team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan about his injured thumb and the results of an MRI taken this week.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com.

Read his daily blog at www.seattletimes.com/Mariners

For the record

Streak: W1

Home: 31-43

Road: 26-44

vs. AL West: 18-25

vs. L.A.: 4-7

vs. Oakland: 6-7

vs. Texas: 8-11

vs. AL East: 15-29

vs. AL Cent.: 15-24

vs. NL: 9-9

vs. LHP: 19-28

vs. RHP: 38-59

Day: 18-30

Night: 39-57

One-run: 17-26

Extra inn.: 5-7

Home attendance

Tuesday's crowd: 23,644

Season total: 2,178,839

Biggest crowd: 46,334 (March 31)

Smallest crowd: 15,818 (May 6)

Average (74 dates): 29,443

2007 average (74 dates): 33,469