ANAHEIM — The Seattle Mariners brought the Home Run Derby to Orange County and all the Angels could do Saturday was turn their collective heads and watch the vapor trails.
The Angels absorbed a 7-2 defeat as the Mariners launched three home runs, including the major league-leading 40th from catcher Cal Raleigh. Fellow mashers Julio Rodriguez and Randy Arozarena also went deep for Seattle.
Raleigh used his switch-hitting prowess to win the Derby earlier this month in Atlanta. Saturday’s homer was just his second since achieving long-ball glory, but No. 40 not only extended his major league lead, it made him the seventh different primary catcher to hit the mark in MLB history.
The Angels have now dropped two of three in the series and five of eight to the Mariners this season. They are also 3-6 since the break as the search for offense continues. The Angels have not scored more than three runs in any of their past five games.
Doing their best to match power swings with their opponent, the Angels did get a home run from Taylor Ward and nearly got another from Zach Neto in the fifth. Neto’s deep fly ball to center died at the wall, although it did bring home Logan O’Hoppe for a brief 2-2 tie.
After getting 4⅔ innings from left-hander Tyler Anderson, who gave up home runs to Rodriguez and Arozarena, right-hander José Fermin (2-2) entered in the sixth inning and gave up Raleigh’s go-ahead home run deep to right field, while batting left-handed, on his third pitch.
Raleigh now has three of his 40 home runs against the Angels. His select group of masked men who have reached the 40-homer club include Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza, who have done it twice, as well as Roy Campanella, Todd Hundley, Javy Lopez and Salvador Perez.
The Angels had five hits against Seattle right-hander George Kirby, but in something of an improvement, they struck out nine times in six innings after they went down 14 times in seven innings against Kirby during a June 8 loss at Anaheim.
Mike Trout went 0-for-3 with a walk as he remained one RBI short of 1,000 for his career. He is also four home runs shy of 400. Trout entered 3-for-19 (.158) over his previous five games.
With Chris Taylor (hand) and Jorge Soler (back) both going on the injured list Saturday, LaMonte Wade Jr. started in right field and went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. He entered batting .180 over his first 29 games with the Angels and .171 in 79 combined games this season.
The Angels then lost Yoán Moncada in the sixth inning when he was hit in the right hand by a Kirby pitch. X-rays were negative for a fracture.
The cool evening at least started promising when Ward gave the Angels a 1-0 lead on a home run to center against Kirby, his team-leading 24th of the season.
Rodriguez hit a home run to center in the third against Anderson to tie the game, his 18th, and Arozarena went out to center one inning later, his 20th, for a 2-1 Seattle advantage. Neto’s sacrifice fly to the wall in center tied the game in the fifth.
Raleigh’s home run started a four-run sixth inning for the Mariners that included a two-run single from Dominic Canzone and an unearned run for a 6-2 advantage when second baseman Luis Rengifo booted a J.P. Crawford ground ball that would have gone for the third out.
Ben Williamson had an RBI single against Angels right-hander Carson Fulmer in the eighth as the Mariners took a 7-2 lead.