Mariners prevail
Their offensive woes continue as the Mariners seal game with a three-run 10th.
Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run off Jose Alvarez caps Seattle’s threerun 10th inning.
The Angels have scored 49 runs this season. The Chicago Cubs have scored 105.
And, yes, the teams have played the same number of games.
Albert Pujols, the Angels’ cleanup batter, is hitting .138. Of the 10 men to bat for the Angels on Friday, six carry averages below .200.
The Angels’ offensive malaise continued Friday, in a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners won by scoring three runs in the 10th inning off Jose Alvarez — the sixth Angels pitcher — on a go-ahead single from Franklin Gutierrez and then a two-run home run from Nelson Cruz.
The Angels are not counting on the likes of Johnny Giavotella (.146) or Carlos Perez (.162) to fortify the heart of the lineup. They are counting on Pujols, whose average is the lowest of any major league regular aside from the Mariners’ Kyle Seager.
After the game, Pujols pointed to the oversized Angels schedule on the clubhouse wall. Come talk about statistics, he said, on Oct. 1.
He hit two balls hard Friday, one a fly ball that descended a few feet short of a game-tying home run. He recalled the 2012 season, his first in Anaheim, when he hit .285 with 30 home runs. In April of that year, he hit .217 with no home runs.
“How did my season finish?” he said, citing his faith in his track record of more than 8,000 at-bats rather than his first 65 at-bats this season. “We don’t need to talk about that.”
Still, Pujols grounded into double plays in each of his first two at-bats and went hitless in four at-bats. He said he would stay ready and stay focused, and the results would come.
“There’s nobody that takes this harder or works at this harder than Albert,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’ll be there. He’ll figure it out.
“He’ll be as productive as any of the years he’s played. When he finds it, he keeps it.”
It is too soon to say the Angels are in a slump. This might be who they are, although Scioscia disputed that.
“Our offense is better than this,” Scioscia said. “We have the utmost confidence we can get things rolling and pressure other teams. We just haven’t gotten there yet. We will.”
The Angels ranked 12th in runs in the American League last year, did not make major improvements to their offense last winter, and have scored more than five runs just once in 17 games this season.
The Angels rank last in the league in runs this year, averaging under three per game. The Angels also rank last in the league in home runs. They entered play Friday with seven, one fewer than Bryce Harper or Trevor Story.
They still rank last, but at least they passed Harper and Story. Kole Calhoun hit his second home run of the season and C.J. Cron his first, solo shots that erased the Angels’ 2-0 deficit.
Angels starter Nick Tropeano staggered in the first inning — giving up two walks, two hits and two runs — but steadied himself thereafter. He worked 51⁄3 innings, giving up four runs and four walks, and left with the score tied, 2-2.
Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma, who had agreed to terms with the Dodgers last winter before the results of a physical examination persuaded the Dodgers not to finalize the deal, gave up two runs over eight innings and 89 pitches.
The Dodgers instead signed Scott Kazmir, who gave up four runs over five innings on 88 pitches on Friday at Colorado. Kazmir was pitching with a thumb issue.
Iwakuma has a 3.81 earned-run average in his first four starts this season; Kazmir has a 6.63 ERA in his first four starts.
bill.shaikin@latimes.com Twitter: @BillShaikin