Angels defeat Mariners, 4-3, on Hideki Matsui’s single in 10th

Reporting from Seattle -- Joe Saunders had quite an act to follow when he stepped to the mound for the Angels on Saturday.

A day earlier teammate Jered Weaver had flirted with a no-hitter before settling for 7 1/3 shutout innings and the win that snapped the team’s seven-game losing streak.

But when Saunders took his turn he wasn’t looking for history. He was just trying to find himself.

And he took a step – albeit a short one -- in that direction Saturday, holding the Seattle Mariners to one earned run in 5 2/3 innings in a game the Angels won in the 10th on Hideki Matsui’s run-scoring single, 4-3.

For the first four innings Saunders was brilliant, giving up three hits and, helped by two double plays, facing just two batters over the minimum. For the next 1 2/3, though, he was as jittery as a freshman on prom night, falling behind 10 of his final 11 batters while giving up three runs, just one of which was earned.

Yet given recent results, that qualifies as an improvement.

The winningest left-hander in the American League over the past two seasons, Saunders struggled mightily in five of his first six starts this spring, going 1-5 with a 7.04 ERA.

No pitcher in baseball has lost more often.

And just a handful of American League starters had a higher ERA.

But Saturday he shut the Mariners out through four innings – running Seattle’s scoreless streak to 22 consecutive innings – before Kevin Frandsen’s throwing error and Juan Rivera’s inability to cut off Ichiro Suzuki’s slicing two-out liner down the left-field line led to a pair of unearned runs.

Saunders’ meltdown the next inning was self-imposed, with the left-hander missing the plate with 14 of his 22 pitches, some of which didn’t come close to the strike zone.

That allowed Seattle to overcome a 3-0 Angel advantage built on Kendry Morales’ four-inning solo homer, his seventh of the season, and Torii Hunter’s two-run, two-strike single with two outs in the fifth.

After Ichiro was charitably credited with a two-run, two-out triple on the ball Rivera misplayed to pull Seattle close, Saunders’ wildness allowed the Mariners to tie the score in the sixth when Mike Sweeney lined a 2-0 pitch into the left-center gap to score Franklin Gutierrez, who had walked.

That just served to set the stage for Matsui, whose recent struggles have been almost as deep, if not as long, as Saunders.

Matsui had gone hitless in 16 consecutive at-bats before singling in the fourth as was batting .147 on the roadtrip before driving in his 1,500th career run in the 10th, giving the Angels the win in their first extra-inning game of the year.

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