A BYRD IN HAND GOOD FOR ANGELS PITCHER STIFLES MARINERS WHILE SELE IS BATTERED ANGELS 6, SEATTLE 1.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - The sweet sound of bat striking ball filled the air incessantly at Angel Stadium on Monday night, which could mean just one thing:

Aaron Sele was back on the mound.

Fortunately for the Angels, Sele pitches for the Seattle Mariners now, and his penchant for hitting bats is no longer their problem. They hired Paul Byrd to fill the fifth slot in the rotation Sele once held, and Monday, Byrd put on a clinic in throwing strikes and ducking out of trouble as he easily bested Sele in a 6-1 victory, his first as an Angel.

Byrd carried a shutout into the eighth inning and while he gave up 11 hits, he walked nobody. He retired the incomparable Ichiro Suzuki - hitting .447 coming into the game - all four times he faced him, and ended his night by inducing a groundball double play from Randy Winn.

Seventy-eight of his 104 pitches were strikes.

``He's a thinking pitcher,'' catcher Josh Paul said of Byrd. ``It's fun to get on his page and go for a ride. He threw everything. I think there was a kitchen sink in there.''

Of utmost importance, there were no walks. Byrd walked three in his last outing, at Texas, which a contact pitcher like him cannot afford. On Monday, that was not a problem.

``That's my game,'' said Byrd, who lauded Paul for his game-calling ability. ``My game is not Randy Johnson's game, it's not Jamie Moyer's game. My game is keeping the ball down, throwing strikes, a little bit of everything.''

Sele wasn't so fortunate.

His 12-year career has been forged on the strength of his knee-buckling curveball, which, at its best, starts at a hitter's eyes and dips toward his ankles.

At its worst, it is a spinning, inviting target for hitters, and the Angels feasted on it twice at key junctures Monday.

The first instance came in the bottom of the third inning, when Vladimir Guerrero crushed it for his fourth home run of the year, a towering two-run drive that sailed over the Angel bullpen in left field for a 3-0 lead.

The second came in the fourth, when singles by Paul and Chone Figgins set the table for Darin Erstad, whose high drive clanged off the foul pole in right field for a three-run homer and a 6-0 lead. In four innings, Sele yielded eight hits.

``It came down to two pitches - two hanging curveballs with two outs,'' Sele said.

He's won 132 games in his career, but the three-year, $24 million deal he signed with the Angels before the 2002 season came months before he suffered a slight tear in his rotator cuff. For two years, he wasn't quite right and went 24-24 with a 5.20 ERA with the Angels.

They assumed Byrd would be a major upgrade over Sele and Ramon Ortiz when they gave Byrd a one-year, $5 million deal in December.

And Byrd showed their instincts might be correct.

After posting a 6.92 ERA in his first two starts, Byrd (1-2) finally bent and didn't break. A flyball off the bat of Adrian Beltre in the third inning probably would have been a three-run homer in the hot summer months.

But it died at the warning track, and Byrd took the momentum and chugged into the sixth. A double and two singles loaded the bases with one out, but Byrd got pop flies from Winn and Miguel Olivo to end the threat.

``I felt like it was my night after that,'' Byrd said.

The Mariners finally got to Byrd in the eighth, when a Bret Boone double preceded a Raul Ibanez RBI single, but Winn's double-play ball ensured Byrd a happy ending.

While Byrd's ERA is a so-so 4.71, his 21 innings pitched lead Angels starters, making him confident he will consistently get deep into games and win, something Sele was never able to do here.

``As long as I throw the same stuff up there and don't panic, it's going to be a good year for me,'' Byrd said.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, 4 boxes

Photo:

Seattle pitcher Aaron Sele, right, scrapes the dirt after giving up a three-run home run to the Angels' Darin Erstad in the fourth inning on Monday.

Matt Sayles/Associated Press

Box:

(1) ANGELS vs. SEATTLE

- Gabe Lacques

(2) GAME RECAP

(3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(4) ALMANAC