Lowly Seattle Feasts on Sele

The Angels might have spent a few moments second-guessing their decision to part ways with first baseman Scott Spiezio, who came up big for the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night, had they not had more pressing concerns.

Aaron Sele again dropped his teammates into a big early hole from which they could not recover during the Mariners’ 7-3 victory in front of 42,251 at Angel Stadium, the third time in his last four starts that Sele has resembled a batting practice pitcher.

A bigger setback came earlier, when the Angels learned that Adam Kennedy had been lost for the season because of torn knee ligaments. The second baseman suffered the injury Monday night while fielding a ground ball.

Seattle worsened the Angels’ mood by pelting Sele for five singles and three runs in the first inning, and four singles and two runs in the third in building a 5-2 lead. The damage might have been worse had Ramon Ortiz not induced Jose Lopez to hit into an inning-ending double play with two on and one out in the third.

Spiezio, the 2002 World Series hero whom the Angels decided not to re-sign after last season, drove in four runs, and Ichiro Suzuki tied a career high with five hits to close in on George Sisler’s major league season record for hits.

Sele’s outing, in which he gave up 10 hits and five runs in 2 1/3 innings, was especially disconcerting considering the Angels had a chance to make up ground in the American League West on the Oakland Athletics, who earlier had lost to the Texas Rangers.

Instead, the Angels remained 2 1/2 games behind the A’s and fell 5 1/2 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL wild-card standings. The surging Rangers are four games behind the A’s, and 1 1/2 games behind the Angels, who are 10-10 in September, a month in which .500 baseball is usually a death knell.

“If what happened tonight is going to be the norm as we move forward,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “it’s going to be extremely difficult for us. We are not doing the things we need to do on a consistent basis.”

Sele, who has a 12.41 earned-run average in his last four starts, was scheduled to start Tuesday against Texas, but Scioscia said the team would assess its options.

The Mariners, who had 18 hits against three pitchers, pressured Sele (9-4) almost from his first pitch, loading the bases in the first inning with three consecutive singles. Bret Boone drove in a run with a fielder’s choice and Spiezio had a two-out, two-run single to make it 3-0.

“I have friends over there, but I’m with Seattle now and I have to do what I can over here,” Spiezio said.

The Angels struck for two runs in the second inning against starter Jamie Moyer (7-12) and trailed, 3-2. Andres Galarraga, making his first start in nearly a year, blooped a run-scoring single to center field and Josh Paul hit a run-scoring double to right-center field.

But Boone led off the third with an infield single, went to second on Jeremy Reed’s single to center field and scored when Spiezio chopped a single over third baseman Dallas McPherson. Dan Wilson’s hit-and-run single past diving shortstop David Eckstein drove in Reed to make it 5-2 and prompted Scioscia to replace Sele.

Ortiz got Lopez to line out to left fielder Jose Guillen, whose throw home beat Spiezio, who tagged up, by a couple of steps.

Vladimir Guerrero, back in the lineup one day after taking a pitch off the batting helmet, tripled off the right-field wall in the third and scored on Garret Anderson’s groundout.

But the Mariners extended their lead to three runs in the seventh when Boone doubled and scored on Spiezio’s sacrifice fly. Boone homered against Kevin Gregg in the ninth to set the final margin.

Suzuki, who set a personal record for hits in a season with 243, needs 15 in 11 games to surpass Sisler’s mark of 257 in 1920.