Angels rally, come back in ninth for walk-off win

ANAHEIM -- Kole Calhoun didn't see it. Tyler Skaggs didn't see it. Mike Scioscia pushed it aside.

But every Angel felt it.

After Seattle closer Fernando Rodney got Calhoun to fly out to deep center and end the eighth -- not ninth -- inning, Rodney reached back for one of his trademark imaginary arrows and shot it towards the Angels dugout.

The Angels got him back by tagging Rodney for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to win, 6-5, in walk-off fashion on Grant Green's single up the middle Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

"Fernando's animated," Scioscia said. "Our guys noticed it."

The Angels (59-38) have now won seven of their last eight games while the Mariners (52-46) are 3-6 in their last nine. Los Angeles remains 1 1/2 games behind division-leading Oakland.

Mike Trout and Albert Pujols definitely noticed it.

After Trout drew a five-pitch walk, Pujols stepped in against Seattle's All-Star closer. Pujols watched two pitches before jumping on a 1-1 Rodney fastball and dumping it into right field for a double. Trout was running on the pitch and had already slid into second by the time the ball had landed.

"I heard the crowd go nuts so I knew he got a hit but I couldn't find it," Trout said.

Trout picked up third-base coach Gary DiSarcina waving him on and Trout raced in from second to knot the game at 5. While standing on second base, Pujols fired an arrow towards the Angels dugout. Trout sent one back.

"Rodney's Rodney," Trout said. "He's out there competing. We're out there competing against him.

"It's baseball, we're having fun. It was a pretty exciting inning."

Pujols said he shot the arrow at the Angels dugout and not Rodney. Rodney also had a different target.

"That was for the fans, because they booed me," said Rodney, who pitched for the Angels from 2010-11 and is far from beloved in Anaheim. "It's part of the game.

"I'm friends with everybody. Mike Scioscia is a great manager and a good person."

Skaggs, who started for the Angels and allowed five runs in 6 2/3 innings, called the action "ridiculous."

"It just goes to show you don't rile up our team because we got a lot of good players, a lot of good hitters," Skaggs said.

Green, whose single gave the Angels their second walk-off win in three days, said Rodney's reaction was poorly timed.

"He woke up our dugout," he said. "At the time, we were hitting well in the game but we didn't really have that key hit. He did it at the wrong time with Trout, Pujols and Josh [Hamilton] coming up."

Green stepped up with the bases loaded and two outs after Rodney had issued two intentional walks but coaxed a double-play ball from David Freese. He took a 1-2, 98-mph fastball up the middle to give the Angels their franchise-record 10th consecutive series win at home.

"I was looking fastball over the middle of the plate that I was able to barrel up and hit back up the middle," Green said.

Green's first career walk-off RBI capped quite the day for the 26-year-old, who made his first Major League start at shortstop, his natural position. He finished 1-for-5 with a strikeout.

"That's a tough place to hit," Scioscia said. "He tried to get a fastball by him, it was down and Grant put it in play hard up the middle. That's what we were hoping to do, put it in play. He had a tough day at the plate leading up to that but came up with the big hit."

Skaggs kept the Angels in the game but was hurt by two Seattle rallies. The Mariners scored three runs in the first inning and two in the seventh but sent just 15 batters to the plate in the five frames in between.

"I think I just turned it up a notch because I was kind of [ticked] off that I just gave up three runs in the first inning," Skaggs said. "I think I need to start going out there with that attitude."

The Mariners sent eight batters to the plate in the first as five consecutive registered a hit. Kyle Seager started the streak with a line-drive home run to right field and Corey Hart and Dustin Ackley capped it with RBI singles. Seattle was 3-for-4 with runners in scoring position in the inning.

"Just wasn't able to put guys away and it hurt him again in the seventh inning," Scioscia said. "His stuff was good. In between, he was terrific, you couldn't ask for much more than what Tyler was giving."

In the seventh, an RBI double from Mike Zunino brought in James Jones, who pinch-ran and foiled a double play with a hit-and-run. Zunino came in on Endy Chavez's single to left.

The comeback win was the Angels' 30th of the season and their sixth when trailing after eight innings.

"I think if you look at late-inning comebacks where we've come back and tied games and come back and grabbed leads late, I think we're certainly getting our share," Scioscia said.

The Angels trailed early but responded with a run in the first and two in the third to tie the game. They added a run in the seventh on Howie Kendrick's two-out single up the middle, scoring Hamilton.

Seattle starter Chris Young worked in and out of trouble for much of the afternoon, allowing three runs but stranding six Angels -- five in scoring position -- in his six innings.

"If you look up and we've got three runs on the board, we could have very easily had six," Scioscia said. "On the offensive end, I thought we were a little better early than maybe it showed."

But the Angels weren't out of arrows.