The Angels rallied from an early 7-0 Mariners lead and a late one-run deficit to beat the Mariners 10-9 Thursday night. Six Angels recorded multi-hit games, Mike Trout leading the way with four singles. Josh Hamilton was the only starter without a hit, but did drive in a run with a sacrifice fly. This Angels team was designed to score tons of runs, to be able to win when the pitching fails. Thursday night it worked, and the Angels have to be happy and hope this marks a turning point.

It was a devastating loss for the Mariners, however. The wasted a great game by Kyle Seeger. He knocked out four hits, including two doubles and a home run. He either score or drove in five of the nine runs. After three turns at bat, Seattle handed their ace, Felix Hernandez a 7-0 lead. This is the franchise. This is the player with the big long term contract. This is one of the best pitchers in the game, and he failed to hold a big lead:

“I just blew the lead,” said Hernandez, who yielded 12 hits and seven runs in five innings. “It’s all my fault. Nobody else. Just me. There’s no excuses. Actually, my fastball was fine, but I left the pitches up a little bit. They were being aggressive, and they scored some runs. There were a lot of broken-bat base hits, but it was my fault. But I’m not thinking about it.”

I’m not surprised about the broken bat hits. If Felix were really getting hammered, he likely would have come out of the game sooner. I suspected that many of the hits off Felix involved a good pitch with a bad outcome. That’s what happens sometimes when the opposition puts the ball in play. Hernandez recorded just two strikeouts and no walks. The Angels offense played like their championship team, not walking, not striking out, and getting plenty of balls in play in the right spot. I wonder if Hernandez, with the big lead, just pitched to contact. If so, I hope he learned that he should be more concerned with pitching to his strength, blowing away batters.

Even with that, however, the Mariners still could win the game. They took a 9-8 lead into the bottom of the eighth. The winning run scored in that inning on a bases loaded walk. To me, that’s the worst way to lose. The pitcher doesn’t at least give his defense a chance to make a play by putting the ball over the plate.

Eric Wedge should be on the hot seat with this team. This is the type of game that might prove the tipping point. It is a game that should have been won; the Mariners had a 97.7% chance of winning in the fourth inning. We’ll see if Seattle can treat this as just another loss, or if this defeat leads to gloom, continued poor play, and new management.