SEATTLE — The Angels still have plenty of work to do to get back to where they were before their collapse, but they have certainly stopped the bleeding.
The Angels left the Northwest with four victories in a five-game series after beating the Seattle Mariners, 4-0, on Sunday afternoon.
Having plunged to six games under .500 with a 2-18 stretch before they arrived, the Angels are up to 33-36 after an impressive weekend.
Mike Trout carried them with five homers in the series, including a two-run blast that put the Angels on the board in the fourth inning on Sunday.
It was his 52nd career homer against the Mariners, including 33 in Seattle. Both are tops for Trout against an opponent and in a ballpark as a visitor.
Trout’s homers gave the Angels leads they did not relinquish in all four of their victories this weekend.
Even though the Angels didn’t do much offensively outside of Trout’s performance, the pitching staff took care of the rest against a short-handed Seattle lineup.
The Angels gave up three runs in the four victories, including back-to-back shutouts to finish the series. Both of those games were started by pitchers making spot starts, left-handers José Suarez and Rosenberg.
Rosenberg, a 26-year-old product of Cal State Northridge, was picked up by the Angels in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft from the Tampa Bay Rays last December.
With a fastball that averaged 90 mph, Rosenberg was able to work his way through the Seattle lineup without much trouble.
Rosenberg did not allow a run in 4-2/3 innings. He didn’t even give up a hit until J.P. Crawford’s single in the fourth inning. He walked a couple hitters in that inning to load the bases, but he got Cal Raleigh on a grounder to escape the jam.
In the fifth, Rosenberg gave up a leadoff double to Justin Upton. He retired the next two hitters on fly balls, and then José Quijada retired Ty France to keep the shutout intact.
Andrew Wantz then struck out two of three hitters he faced in a perfect sixth and Aaron Loup whiffed all three in the seventh. Ryan Tepera pitched a perfect eighth and then Raisel Iglesias worked the ninth.
