Mariners stave off elimination, beat Angels

Seattle, WA - Playing with their season on the line, the Seattle Mariners pounded out three home runs en route to a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Michael Saunders knocked what proved to be the game-winning two-run homer, while Kendrys Morales and Dustin Ackley each provided solo shots for the Mariners, who would have been eliminated from playoff contention with a loss after Oakland took a win from Texas earlier in the night.

Seattle trails the A's by two games in the AL Wild Card standings with each team having two games remaining.

Hisashi Iwakuma (15-9) ended a three-start losing streak by going 6 1/3 innings and yielding two runs on four hits.

Even with the loss, Los Angeles clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs because of Baltimore's loss to Toronto on Friday. The American League won the All-Star Game, which also gives the Angels home field in the World Series if they were to make it that far.

Jered Weaver (18-9) allowed four runs on nine hits over six innings or work for Los Angeles. Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout hit back-to-back homers in the setback.

Morales led off the second inning with his eighth homer of the season. Logan Morrison followed with a single before Saunders also delivered his eighth homer of the year, a shot to right, for a 3-0 lead.

Ackley then led off the home fifth with a solo homer to right to increase the cushion to 4-0.

Iwakuma had allowed just two hits over the first five innings until the Angels finally broke through in the sixth. Calhoun sent a solo shot to right with one out, then Trout connected on his 36th long ball of the season to cut the deficit in half.

"He kept the ball down in the zone for the most part," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said of Iwakuma. "He made two bad pitches and they took advantage of it."

Fernando Rodney allowed a one-out single to Howie Kendrick in the ninth, then pinch-runner Shawn O'Malley scored on Erick Aybar's double to right. Rodney proceeded to get David Freese to fly out to right and Brennan Boesch to ground out, however, for his 48th save of the season.