Jon Garland's struggles continue as Angels win
ANGELS 6, SEATTLE 5
Starter might not be part of the playoff rotation. Francisco Rodriguez gets 62nd save.
SEATTLE -- Jon Garland's September fade will probably cost the veteran right-hander a spot in the Angels' division series rotation. His second-half slump could jeopardize his chances of returning to the Angels next season.
Garland, whose first-half consistency helped the Angels absorb injuries to John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, struggled again Wednesday night, giving up five runs and 11 hits in five innings of the Angels' 6-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Safeco Field.
The Angels took Garland off the hook by rallying for three runs in the sixth, an inning that featured Sean Rodriguez's two-run double off Felix Hernandez, and Mark Teixeira broke a 5-5 tie with a solo home run off reliever Mark Lowe in the eighth.
Darren Oliver replaced Garland and threw two innings of perfect relief for the win, Scot Shields escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth with a strikeout of Ichiro Suzuki and Yuniesky Betancourt's groundout, and closer Francisco Rodriguez added a scoreless ninth for his 62nd save, extending his major league record.
The win enabled the Angels (98-60) to retain their two-game advantage over Tampa Bay for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with four to play and sent the Mariners to their 100th loss.
In his last seven starts, Garland has yielded 31 earned runs and 54 hits in 38 2/3 innings for a 7.22 earned run average. His ERA has gone up in each of the past three months, from 3.98 in June, to 5.46 in July, to 5.57 in August, to 7.18 in September.
Garland turns 29 this weekend and is in the final year of a three-year, $29-million contract that paid him $12 million this season.
With owner Arte Moreno looking to keep his payroll in the $125-million range and the Angels expected to make a strong push to retain Teixeira, a costly free agent, it's highly doubtful they'll spend another $12 million or so on a pitcher coming off a mediocre year.
Remarkably, Garland still has a very respectable 14-8 record, and even during his most recent seven-start slide he is 3-0 with four no-decisions.
For that, he can thank his teammates, who have backed him with 58 runs in those seven games and prevented him from losing Wednesday night.
Garland gave up a run on Jose Lopez's RBI double in the first and another run on four hits in the second, an inning that ended with left fielder Garret Anderson cutting down Miguel Cairo at the plate.
