Haren's 14-K gem, Pujols' homer lead Angels past Mariners

Stretch out: Cardinals second baseman Tyler Greene dives after a ball hit by the Phillies' Placido Polanco on Friday in St. Louis. The play resulted in an RBI single. Philadelphia won 10-9. AP

SEATTLE — The gem Dan Haren tossed Thursday night looked awfully familiar to Albert Pujols. Except this time instead of Pujols getting fooled by what Haren was tossing, he was helping the Los Angeles Angels' right-hander put together one of the finest efforts of his career.

"He makes good hitters look pretty bad including myself, he has in the past," Pujols said. "He is pretty amazing when he keeps the ball down.

Pujols had three hits, including his 450th career home run, and Haren struck out a career-high 14 to lead the Los Angeles Angels to a 3-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night.

Pujols, a newcomer to the AL West rivalry, made his presence known immediately. He lined a two-run shot off Seattle starter Jason Vargas (5-4) with one-out in the top of the first, and added line-drive singles in the fourth and sixth innings. It was just his third three-hit game this season.

And those three runs proved to be plenty for Haren (2-5), who tossed the sixth shutout and 16th complete game of his career. He allowed four hits and only one Mariners baserunner reached third base. Only one other pitcher in Angels history had more strikeouts without allowing a walk than Haren did against Seattle.

After struggling with a sore back for the early part of the season, putting together that kind of performance was gratifying for Haren.

"Even pitching at 80 percent I should get better results than I have been getting in prior starts. I think it was obvious tonight that my stuff was better and I was feeling better in general," Haren said. "I'm happy obviously to win a game. I forgot what it felt like."

Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki finished 1-for-4 in the loss.

Indians 2, Tigers 1

In Cleveland, Justin Masterson (2-3) matched Justin Verlander pitch for pitch for his first career win over Detroit, and the first-place Indians did just enough to complete a three-game sweep of the underperforming Tigers.

Choo Shin Soo homered on the third pitch from Verlander (5-2) as Cleveland won for the eighth time in 10 games and opened a six-game lead over third-place Detroit in the AL Central.

White Sox 11, Twins 8

In Chicago, Paul Konerko and Alex Rios hit back-to-back homers and Alejandro De Aza added a grand slam to cap a six-run sixth, leading the White Sox to a victory over Minnesota.

A.J. Pierzynski and Dayan Viciedo also went deep as Chicago won for the sixth time in seven games.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Reds 6, Braves 3

In Cincinnati, rookie catcher Devin Mesoraco capped a series full of homers with his first career grand slam, leading his club to a victory over Atlanta.

The Reds completed their first four-game sweep of the Braves in Cincinnati since 1980 at Riverfront Stadium.

Giants 14, Marlins 7

In Miami, Melky Cabrera had three hits and drove in four runs for San Francisco, which gave starter Ryan Vogelsong robust run support for a change.

Vogelsong (3-2) allowed three runs in 6? innings, which hiked his ERA to 2.50. The Giants had scored 22 runs in his previous seven starts.

Padres 11, Mets 5

In New York, Will Venable hit a pair of RBI doubles and Cameron Maybin had two run-scoring singles as San Diego broke out the offense after a long rain delay.

Phillies 10, Cardinals 9

In St. Louis, Shane Victorino and Freddy Galvis each drove in three runs, including Galvis' go-ahead single in the sixth inning, in Philadelphia's close win.

View the original article here