C.J. Wilson tries to continue his mastery of the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday when the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim continue a four- game series against their American League West rivals at Angel Stadium.
Wilson has owned the Mariners since the start of the 2011 season, posting a remarkable 7-1 record with a 2.24 ERA in nine starts. He's also struck 65 batters in 60 1/3 innings in that time and has beaten them the last four times he has faced them.
He's 13-5 lifetime against Seattle with a 3.75 ERA in 52 appearances, 15 of which have been starts.
The left-hander snapped a personal two-game losing streak on Friday against the New York Yankees, as he allowed a pair of runs and five hits in seven innings to improve to 5-5, while lowering his ERA to 3.90
"A win's a win. I'll take a pretty win or an ugly win, or whatever," said Wilson. "I'm very motivated to pitch deep into the game, and pitching a lot of innings is really what separates the good pitchers from the really good pitchers. I'm just trying to get back up to that level where I feel like I deserve to be."
Seattle, meanwhile, will counter with lefty Joe Saunders, who is 5-6 with a 4.80 ERA. Saunders picked up his first road win of the season on Friday in Oakland with a terrific effort that saw him surrender a run and five hits in seven innings.
Even with the win, he is a mere 1-4 in seven starts away from home this season with a 7.58 ERA.
Saunders, who spent the first five-plus years of his career with the Angels, lost his only other start to them.
Seattle snapped a two-game losing streak on Tuesday, as Kendrys Morales drove in the winning run in the 10th inning to lead the Mariners to a 3-2 win.
With two outs in the 10th, Kyle Seager smoked a double down the right field line. Morales then followed with a liner off Garrett Richards (2-4) that just went off the glove of Erick Aybar at short, landing in shallow center to score Seager for a 3-2 lead.
Raul Ibanez and Justin Smoak homered for the Mariners, who won for the fifth time in eight chances. Jeremy Bonderman went six innings in the start and gave up just one run on six hits with three walks. Charlie Furbush (1-3) got the final out of the ninth to pick up the win.
Albert Pujols and Mark Trumbo homered for the Angels, who lost for only the second time in their last six games. Joe Blanton tied a season-high with 11 strikeouts and gave up two runs, both homers, on six hits over 6 2/3 innings.
"We didn't execute in a couple areas during the game," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "On the offensive side, guys in scoring position, we had trouble tonight, but we just didn't do enough things during the ballgame to kind of get a handle on it."
Los Angeles has split its eight matchups with the Mariners this season.
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