ANGELS KEEP PACE WITH A'S ANDERSON HOMERS, LACKEY RECORDS WIN ANGELS 5, SEATTLE 3.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA  Staff Writer

SEATTLE -- For one day anyway, the Angels will not have to watch the Oakland Athletics disappear farther into the distance.

The Angels defeated the Seattle Mariners 5-3 Wednesday and did not lose any ground in the American League West standings for the first time in three days.

After losing the first two games of the series against the Mariners, the Angels had to rally to win to remain 7 1/2 games back and get John Lackey a much-needed victory.

Lackey managed to win for the first time this month after earning AL Pitcher of the Month honors in July. Last month Lackey was 5-1 with a 2.08 ERA, but had gone 0-3 in August with twono-decisions and a 7.07 ERA before Wednesday.

Lackey (11-9) wasn't sharp, but made pitches when he had to. He gave up three runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings and did not walk a batter, although he hit two. Lackey hit Chris Snelling in the first inning, a day after Snelling had hit twohome runs off Jered Weaver.

``I felt OK and I established inside pretty good early on,'' Lackey said. ``That kind of helped me through some things. I had a couple of games like that (this month) and lost them. I have to go out there and give this team a chance to win.''

The Mariners have been a particular problem this season. Lackey has a 9.74 ERA against Seattle this season and a 2.81 mark over the rest of the league.

In this outing he made some adjustments out of the stretch to keep the Mariners off-balance.

The Angels already knew the A's had won before they took the field, so winning was imperative in order to stop losing ground. While being focused on the task at hand is the preferred method, it's been hard to not notice the streaking A's.

``They're playing good and definitely making it tough on us but we've got to win and stay there,'' Lackey said. ``We still have seven left with them but you don't want to be in a position where you have to win all seven. We have to get a little closer than that.''

Vladimir Guerrero is trying to do his part on the offensive end. He had two hits and an RBI to close out the month on a 17-game hitting streak. He batted .393 in August.

The Angels trailed 3-2 heading into the sixth inning when Garret Anderson led off with a home run off Jake Woods to tie the score 3-3. When Robb Quinlan followed with a double, Woods was replaced by Joel Pineiro.

Two batters into Pineiro's outing, Howie Kendrick hit his second RBI double in as many at-bats to give the Angels a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Anderson, who has been coming to life of late after being slowed with foot and hamstring injuries all season, has 23 RBIs over his past 23 games.

As usual, Anderson wasn't much for analyzing what happened and especially didn't care to talk about what seems to be his improving health.

``As I said a month ago, I don't want to talk about that stuff,'' Anderson said. ``I don't like talking about that at all.''

So what is the reason for the improvement?

``I don't know,'' he said. ``I haven't really thought about it.''

The Angels added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Juan Rivera followed a Guerrero double with an RBI single.

Woods, who was placed on waivers by the Angels this offseason and claimed by the Mariners, was making just his third career start and second against the Angels in just more than a week. After a no-decision on Aug. 20, the Angels handed Woods his first defeat as a starter.

Scot Shields, who had been struggling of late, got the Angels to the ninth inning when Francisco Rodriguez took over. Rodriguez hit Kenji Johjima with a pitch to open the ninth but got a double-play grounder from Jose Lopez, and Yuniesky Betancourt grounded out to short to end it.

It was Rodriguez's 37th save of the season, which keeps him one behind AL leader Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox.

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The Angels' Garret Anderson, right, is congratulated by third-base coach Dino Ebel after a sixth-inning solo home run in Seattle.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press