Josh Lowe hit a go-ahead solo homer in the sixth inning and Ryan Johnson allowed one run on six hits over six innings, leading the Los Angeles Angels to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday in Anaheim, Calif.
Wade Meckler had two hits and a run, Vaughn Grissom hit an RBI double and Moises Ballesteros and Lowe each had two hits for Los Angeles (58-93), which clinched its first home series win since Aug. 10-13 against the Texas Rangers. The Angels will shoot for a three-game sweep on Wednesday.
Johnson (5-8) struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. He began the game by throwing 16 consecutive strikes and left after throwing 90 pitches, 67 for strikes. Ryan Watson tossed a scoreless ninth inning to pick up his third save.
Dominic Canzone tripled and scored a run and Julio Rodriguez had an RBI double for Seattle (70-82), which lost for the fourth time in five games. The defeat guaranteed the Mariners their first losing season since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, when they went 27-33. Seattle finished 68-94 a year earlier in 2019 for its last full losing season.
Last year, the Mariners reached the American League Championship Series.
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (12-10) gave up two runs on six hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out seven, including the 1,078th of his career in his final inning, tying Mark Langston for fourth place on Seattle’s all-time strikeout list.
Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when Meckler singled with two outs and scored on Grissom’s double down the left field line.
Seattle tied it in the top of the sixth. Canzone led off with a triple off the top of the center field fence and scored one out later on a double by Rodriguez into the left-center-field gap.
The Angels regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth on Lowe’s 12th home run, a 388-foot drive to right-center that proved to be the game-winner.