Weaver Pitches Complete Game To Lead Angels Past O's
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Jered Weaver pitched his first complete game of the season, Bobby Abreu highlighted a five-run fifth inning with a tiebreaking two-run single and the Los Angeles Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 on Saturday night.
Weaver (3-0) allowed five hits, struck out five and walked none while going the distance for the ninth time in 181 career starts on 114 pitches. Since the beginning of the 2010 season, the All-Star right-hander is 12-0 with a 1.84 ERA in 15 starts before May 1. The last time he lost a game in April was his second start of 2009.
Jake Arrieta (1-1) gave up five runs and six hits in 4 1-3 innings. The right-hander was coming off a no-decision at Toronto in which he tied a career high with 114 pitches over 6 2-3 innings.
Facing a lineup with five left-handers including the switch-hitting Wieters, Weaver retired his first 12 batters before Adam Jones had an infield hit to third base leading off the fifth. Weaver then got behind 3-0 on Wieters, who got the green light from manager Buck Showalter and drove his fifth homer deep into the right field seats for a 2-0 lead.
Two of the Angels' first 14 batters reached second base, both on errant pickoff throws by Arrieta after leadoff singles by Erick Aybar in the first inning and Torii Hunter in the fifth. Hunter advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on Mark Trumbo's opposite-field single, triggering a five-run rally.
Aybar tied it with a bases-loaded RBI single and Abreu followed with his two-run single to center, giving the Angels a 4-2 lead. Kendrys Morales chased Arrieta with a run-scoring single after a walk to Albert Pujols loaded the bases again.
Arrieta's only other start against the Angels was on Aug. 5, 2010, when he allowed two earned runs over 7 2-3 innings before the Orioles won 5-4. That was the longest outing in Arrieta's 44 big league starts.
Pujols, stuck in the longest season-opening home run drought of his career, was 0 for 3. The three-time NL MVP is batting .262 with only four RBIs in 15 games and 61 at-bats.
NOTES: The Orioles ended LHP Tsuyoshi Wada's rehab assignment and are sending him back to Baltimore to be examined by team doctors. He has been in the DL since March 28 with an impingement in his elbow, and no timetable has been set as to when he can resume throwing. ... Pujols has only three homers in his last 40 regular-season games and 166 at-bats overall. His longest home run drought ever was last season, when he came up empty in 27 straight games and 105 at-bats. ... Baltimore 3B Mark Reynolds struck out in the third, and is 18 away from 1,000. He led the majors in strikeouts three consecutive seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks before Cincinnati's Drew Stubbs ended his streak last year. ... Jones, the Orioles' cleanup hitter, is batting .179 with runners on base -- and .424 with the bases empty. The seventh-year CF is the only player to start in each of the team's first 15 games. ... Baltimore DH Nick Johnson was 0 for 3 and is hitless in 23 at-bats, the longest drought by any player since the start of the season.
