Narrow M's defeat finishes Angels sweep

On a second straight pretty afternoon, the crowd at Safeco Field that put the Mariners over 2 million in attendance for the season got more out of showing up.

On a similar sunny afternoon Saturday, the fans had little more to do than work on their tans.

Yesterday, those who came got a rare treat this season — entertainment, even if the Angels took sweep revenge.

In a game that had the 38,468 attending at least paying attention, Los Angeles performed at the level of the Mariners for a while but escaped with a 7-6 win yesterday.

The victory came thanks to a wonderful play by third baseman Chone Figgins in the eighth inning, which was immediately followed by a questionable call by plate umpire Laz Diaz.

There was no question of the quality of Figgins' play, scooting to his left to flag down Yuniesky Betancourt's hard grounder with runners on second and third and one out and the Mariners trailing 7-6.

"I don't know of anyone else quick enough to make that play," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said.

Figgins said, "That guy had been hitting stuff hard at me the whole series. I was prepared."

With Richie Sexson heading home from third on contact, Figgins' throw was high to the foul side of the base line. Sexson cut to the inside and seemed to get his right foot down in time, although replays from three different angles were inconclusive.

"He [catcher Bengie Molina] went one way and I went the other," Sexson said. "I just tried to sneak my foot in there. I thought I did. He thought I didn't."

Hargrove went out to question Diaz, who took the obvious line of testimony that Molina's tag, although it came down above the knee, was applied before the foot touched the dish.

"I told him I was safe. He told me I was out," Sexson said of his brief interrogation of the umpire. "What are you going to say? You're never going to get it reversed."

After the visitors topped Seattle's three-run first inning with a five-run fifth, featuring Vladimir Guerrero's three-run home run, it appeared this was going to be another chapter in the series' one-sided story, which started with the Angels' tie-breaking five-run eighth on Friday.

For the record, the Angels scored 25 runs in the three games to the Mariners 11, and hit .359 with eight homers — three by Guerrero, two by Molina — to Seattle's .219 with three homers.

While the Mariners' bullpen took two of the losses, the Angels smacked around Seattle's starters for 16 runs in 15-1/3 innings. Yesterday they chased Gil Meche after 4-1/3, only to have reliever Julio Mateo allow gopherballs to Guerrero and Molina for a 6-3 lead.

"My body tells me I'm not as fluid or smooth as I was on the mound years ago," said Meche, who needed 80 pitches to get through four innings and was toasted early. "I've got to look at film and try to figure out how to get back to where I was."

Yet the Mariners tied the score with two runs in the seventh, an inning that started simply enough with Yorvit Torrealba doubling and Ichiro driving him home with a run-scoring single, his third hit of the game, but ended with convolutions that had everyone sitting up.

On three consecutive pitches came action that would have sickened legendary manager Cornelius McGillicuddy:

• Ichiro stole second on a pitchout, but did not advance when shortstop Orlando Cabrera made a good deke as if he had caught Molina's throw that sailed into center field.

• Reliever Brendan Donnelly threw a 57-foot pitch that let Ichiro advance to third.

• When it seemed Cabrera's fake had saved the lead, Donnelly took Raul Ibanez's tapper to the mound and shot-putted it past first, an error that tied the score.

But it was knotted only for a while.

Mariners reliever George Sherrill came in for the eighth and hit leadoff man Adam Kennedy with a slider that got too close. Figgins bunted Kennedy into scoring position, and Sherrill got Cabrera for the second out. He then got ahead of Darin Erstad 0-2, threw a show-me slider for a ball, a fastball that just missed and a slider that it appeared Diaz missed.

"The first two missed, but that 2-2 slider came across the entire strike zone and I don't see how it missed," Sherrill said. "But it wasn't the call that did it. The last pitch did it — a slider that backed up, stayed up, and he hit it."

Erstad lined that slider into left to give the Angels a 7-6 lead. Of course, the hijinks weren't over.

Angels reliever Scot Shields walked Sexson to open the home half of the eighth, and he had reached third by the time Betancourt ripped the ball to Figgins' left.

Finally, in a game and a weekend when the weather was great and performances were not, someone did something that would have made Connie Mack proud.

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com