SEATTLE -- All those comments from the Seattle Mariners about how this was such a big series, an early-season showdown between teams expected to contend for the American League West title, must have rubbed off on the Angels.
The Angels avoided a three-game sweep with a convincing 10-5 victory Sunday in Safeco Field, pounding out 16 hits -- three each by Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis and Casey Kotchman -- and afterward, it all seemed pretty significant to the winning pitcher.
"We needed to win this game -- it was a big win for us," said left-hander Joe Saunders, who overcame command problems to go 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs and six hits, and improve to 2-0.
"If we had been swept, the plane ride to Texas would have been a lot worse. . . . The [Mariners'] hopes were really high from the last two nights. They were on a roll. It's nice to have that stopper game, to get some momentum and stop the bleeding."
Now, if they can only stop the straining, the bruising and the inflammation.
On an overcast, 51-degree day, in which center fielder Torii Hunter did not play because of a jammed left big toe, reliever Justin Speier struggled because of a sore right knee and closer Francisco Rodriguez took his first, somewhat tentative steps in his return from a sprained right ankle, the Angels lost their hottest hitter.
Kendrick, who had two doubles and a single to raise his average to .500 (18 for 36), clutched his left hamstring as he approached second base on his seventh-inning double to right-center field.
The second baseman was pulled from the game and diagnosed with a hamstring strain, an injury that is not expected to send him to the disabled list but could sideline him for several days.
Kendrick, who sat out 2 1/2 months of 2007 because of a pair of fluke finger injuries, had only returned Saturday after sitting out three games because of a jammed right thumb.
"I was hustling -- right before second, I tried to turn it on a bit -- when I felt my hamstring a little," Kendrick said. "I tried to shut it down as soon as I felt it. I don't think it popped. [Today], I should be able to tell how bad it is."
Kendrick couldn't blame the weather, "because other guys were playing in it," he said. "It's just part of the game. Before last year, I didn't have any injury problems. It's like I've been haunted the last two years."
In between stints in the training room, Kendrick has been crushing the ball and finding gaps; he has five doubles and a triple.
