When it comes to acquiring Major League talent, most of the talk is understandably about trades, free-agent signings and the Draft. But baseball players can be found other ways as well, as the Mariners have shown again by discovering Nick Margevicius and Sam Haggerty via the waiver wire.

The two surprising additions shone bright again Friday in a 3-2 loss at Angel Stadium, with Margevicius holding the Angels to two runs over six innings in his fourth straight strong start since moving into the rotation for the injured Kendall Graveman and Haggerty running his hit streak to nine games with an RBI single.

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Margevicius was claimed from the Padres in January, and the 24-year-old has posted a 3.48 ERA in his four starts while adding another interesting candidate to the Mariners’ young rotation.

“He was really, really good,” said manager Scott Servais. “He attacked and his stuff was good. He continues to learn and develop as we go through this thing.”

Haggerty also came via a January waiver claim, from the Mets, and the 26-year-old is proving to be both versatile and valuable, having hit safely in all nine games he’s played since being called up from the alternate training site while putting up a .297 average. The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder has played primarily in left field while batting second, but he filled the designated-hitter role on Friday and gave Seattle a 1-0 lead with his sixth-inning single.

After a leadoff double by J.P. Crawford, Haggerty tried to bunt the go-ahead runner over to third, but fouled off two attempts before driving a single up the middle.

“In that situation, we give our guys freedom, and want to just get that guy to third base,” Servais said. “If you think you can stay inside one and hit it to right field and move the runner along, it’s really up to the player. Quite frankly, I was glad to see him swing the bat there. And he did after getting down in the count. He hung in there.

“Sam has a lot of grit to him. I really enjoy watching him play. He’s got some edge to him. He’ll fight through at-bats.”

The Angels finally scored twice off Margevicius in the bottom of that frame, but he equaled his career-long with the six-inning, 98-pitch outing while scattering seven hits and striking out five.

Being allowed to go deeper into games is a confidence boost for the youngster, who went 2-6 with a 6.79 ERA in 17 games (12 starts) last year for San Diego after being rushed to the Majors from Class A ball.

“It’s been very important for me,” Margevicius said. “I’m really encouraged to see the confidence they have. Coming over to a new team, they really didn’t know who I was or what I was about. Starting off in the bullpen, is he a bullpen guy or a starter? They just didn’t know me that well. I want to be the guy the team wants on the mound. That’s important to me, and I’m really happy they’re showing that confidence in me.”

The Angels added a key insurance run in the eighth when Mike Trout homered off reliever Brady Lail, who was making his first appearance since Aug. 17. That proved crucial as the Mariners scored in the ninth when Kyle Seager doubled and scored on a Tim Lopes base hit to right.

But José Marmolejos, who had walked after Seager’s two-bagger, was thrown out trying to advance to third on Lopes’ hit, taking the tying run out of scoring position.

“We have been very aggressive all year,” said Servais, whose team leads the Majors in stolen bases. “I love seeing our guys go first to third. Marmo is trying to get there as the tying run with one out. Obviously they made the good relay. Yeah, to do it all over again, we’d hold up at second. We got a little too aggressive there at that point in the ballgame. They made a play on us, and it ended up biting us in the end.”