M's become fastest team to 50 with win over Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Is it Rally Monkey-pox?

Whatever has befallen the Anaheim Angels and their championship monkey this year, their late-inning lucky charm has not worked.

In fact, last night, the little dude couldn't even hex Jeff Nelson in the ninth while the reliever fought off a repeat of his Friday fright night in San Diego.

Despite allowing one run, Nelson held on to save Freddy Garcia's sixth consecutive win, 6-4, Anaheim's eighth loss in 11 games.

"It was very difficult waiting the four days to get back in a game and try to redeem myself," Nelson said. "I was in a starting-type rotation, and you're only human. The negative thoughts can stay with you."

Before Nelson's sixth save, which tied a career high from his 1992 rookie season, the game turned in the fifth and sixth innings.

Three poor pitches by Aaron Sele, the last a two-run homer by Bret Boone (his 21st), bumped Seattle's lead from 2-1 to 5-1.

The Mariners scored first on Jeff Cirillo's leadoff double in the third and Mike Cameron's solo homer leading off the fifth, the latter nullified quickly by Bengie Molina's one-out homer in the bottom of the inning.

With two away in that inning, the Angels had Adam Kennedy on third and Darin Erstad on first and Garcia had battled tough Troy Glaus to 2-2 before throwing a third ball on which Erstad broke for second.

"We know they have the play where they try to steal a run," manager Bob Melvin said. "But Danny (Wilson) and Boonie played it perfectly."

Wilson peeked quickly to third — which infield coach Dave Myers said, "made the whole play work by freezing Kennedy just enough" — and threw to second.

Boone took the throw, and as soon as Erstad slowed up, immediately looked toward Kennedy, who had broken from third to home but paused when Boone spied him.

"We're aware they might try that with runners on first and third," Boone said. "Dan gave me a good throw. I was able to check Erstad then focus on Kennedy."

Boone ran right at the trapped runner, the perfect play in that situation, and as soon as Kennedy committed to the plate, he quickly unloaded a throw to Wilson.

In a solid hit at home, Wilson blocked the plate, took a hard hit and handed out a hard tag for the out. He then spiked the ball on the dirt near the plate.

"I shouldn't have done that, it was foolish on my part," Wilson said of his emotion-packed reaction to the play, which resulted in three spike scrapes on the front of his left thigh. "What he (Kennedy) did was not malicious and I got carried away by the emotion of the moment."

Surprised by Wilson's uncharacteristic action, teammates erupted for the three quick runs. Ichiro led off the inning with a double; he earlier extended his hitting streak to 19 games. His average jumped to .358. Carlos Guillen drove him in with a single and Boone hit a cut fastball for his two-run homer to make it 5-1.

Having stuffed Anaheim's bid to steal a run, Seattle seemed to steal one of its own for a 6-1 lead.

Sele walked Edgar Martinez after Boone's homer, Then with Scot Shields pitching and Martinez on second, Randy Winn singled to center.

Myers waved Martinez home and the DH slowly chugged for home. Erstad's rainbow throw went far over the cutoff man and wide of the plate and Martinez scored. Moreover, Winn made second on the poor throw, but was stranded there as Cirillo lined out to Shields.

Garcia was solid, raising his record in June to 5-0 and is likely a candidate for pitcher of the month.

"I had all my pitches working pretty much," said the right-hander, who held the slumping Angels to one run on four hits through the first six innings, a stretch in which Anaheim had only three runners beyond first.

But Garcia tired in the seventh when Scott Spiezio and Molina led off with doubles and the Angels scored twice to get back to 6-3.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa closed that inning and after Tim Salmon led off the eighth with a double, left-hander Arthur Rhodes closed that inning and Nelson closed the game by fanning Glaus.

"It's not the pitching that gets you, although I take everything hard, giving up a run, never mind giving up a lead and a game," Nelson said. "It's the waiting to get back in there that's rough.

"Then in here, they get that Rally Monkey going and all the noise and they are a tough bunch of hitters. Hey, I guess you could say I got the monkey off my back ... right?"