Great starts by Hill, Nolasco
Angels pitcher allows three singles against Mariners en route to sixth career shutout.
Dodgers blank Padres 8-0; Angels top Mariners 4-0.
ANGELS 4 SEATTLE 0
There was no hint, no indication, that Ricky Nolasco would suddenly morph into the dominant right-hander who went 4-2 with a 1.47 ERA in his final six starts of 2016 for the Angels.
It just happened, in the same way a bloop hit will sometimes spark a hot streak for a slumping hitter, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for an injuryplagued rotation in need of a shot in the arm.
Nolasco threw his sixth career shutout and 12th complete game Saturday night, allowing three singles, striking out seven and walking none in a 4-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners, a team that scored 10 runs the night before.
Nolasco’s last shutout came last Aug. 31 against the Cincinnati Reds. Before Saturday, the longest start of the season for any Angels pitcher was seven innings.
The sterling effort at Angel Stadium came on the heels of last Monday night’s gem against the Dodgers, when Nolasco held baseball’s hottest lineup scoreless over 61⁄3 innings in which he allowed five hits in a 4-0 Angels victory.
Nolasco entered that game with a 2-9 record and 5.23 ERA, an American League-high 23 home runs allowed and a career-long seven-game losing streak. He has allowed eight hits in 151⁄3 innings in his last two starts.
Mixing a fastball that touched 93 mph with a slider, split-fingered fastball and an occasional slow curve, Nolasco retired the side in order in six of nine innings Saturday. Of his 105 pitches, 69 were strikes.
Only one Mariners runner reached second base, when Danny Valencia was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fifth and advanced on Mitch Haniger’s single to right. Angels center fielder Cameron Maybin raced in to make a nice running catch of Jarrod Dyson’s sinking line drive to end the inning.
Shortstop Andrelton Simmons gave the Angels a 1-0 lead when he crushed his ninth homer of the season, a 438-foot solo shot to leftcenter, in the second.
Simmons hit four homers in 2016, his first with the Angels; the only time he’s reached double figures in homers is 2013, when he 17 for Atlanta.
Maybin, in a five-for-37 slump (.135) in the previous nine games, had two hits, including an RBI single in the third, and backed Nolasco with several superb defensive plays.
Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz opened the second with a laser off the centerfield wall. Maybin fielded the carom and fired a onehop throw to second in time for Simmons to swipe a tag on Cruz.
Haniger led off the third with a drive to deep rightcenter, where Maybin made a leaping catch at the wall for the out. One out later, catcher Carlos Ruiz hit a sinking line drive to shallow center. Maybin sprinted in and made a sliding catch just before the ball hit the turf to end the inning.
Ben Revere led off the bottom of the third with a single to left and stole second. Nick Franklin, making his Angels debut after being acquired from Milwaukee on Friday, advanced Revere with a grounder to first. Maybin’s single to center cored Revere for a 2-0 lead.
The Angels tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh. Yunel Escobar led off with a single to center off Seattle starter Sam Gaviglio and took third on Luis Valbuena’s double into the left-field corner off reliever Marc Rzepczynski.
Martin Maldonado was walked intentionally to load the bases. Rzepczynski threw a wild pitch that allowed Escobar to score, and Revere grounded out to first, Valbuena scoring for a 4-0 lead.