COLON RETURNS THE FAVOR AGAINST SEATTLE GIVES UP ONE RUN IN EIGHT INNINGS IN PAYBACK GAME ANGELS 9, SEATTLE 1.

Byline: Keven Chavez Staff Writer

SEATTLE - The Angels preach situational hitting as the key to their offense.

For the second consecutive game, they made life easy by getting hits in every situation the Seattle Mariners threw their way.

The Angels banged out 15 hits, turned the basepaths into their own personal race track and allowed starter Bartolo Colon to let the fastballs fly in a 9-1 laugher of a victory Saturday in front of 42,500 at Safeco Field.

The Angels picked up right where they left off Friday night, a contest in which a five-run, six-hit outburst broke open a tie game.

This time around, the Angels offense wasted no time against Seattle starter Ryan Franklin, who returned from suspension after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Chone Figgins led off the game with a double, and four ensuing first-inning singles gave Colon a 2-0 lead before he stepped out of the dugout.

``When the offense is getting a lot of runs for me, it makes it easier when I take the mound,'' Colon said through an interpreter.

Colon's day turned into a breeze in the fifth inning, when the Angels' offense batted around for the second game in a row. Five singles produced three more runs and knocked Franklin (6-12) out of the game.

``I like the way we scored today,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``We hit some home runs, but the way we ran the bases - first-to-thirds, well-executed hit-and-runs - that has to be in our daily offense, and stoday it was big.''

Jose Molina delivered the finishing blow with a ground-rule double off Seattle reliever Jeff Harris just inside the right-field line to score two more runs for a commanding 8-0 lead.

Five Angels had multihit games including Juan Rivera, who went 3 for 5 with a home run.

Figgins also went 3 for 5, hitting his sixth home run of the season, a second-inning solo blast off Franklin that hovered over the wall in the deep right-center-field alley.

Figgins fell a triple short of the cycle.

``Usually, that's the easiest one for me to get,'' he joked.

Colon (15-6) took care of the rest, allowing just four hits and one run while pitching eight innings.

``Today we played good defense, we got great offensive support, and it let Bart relax and pitch,'' Scioscia said. ``He pitched a great game.''

It was a far cry from Colon's last start against the Mariners, July 7 in Anaheim. In that game, the Mariners roughed up the All-Star for seven runs in six innings.

Only once on Saturday did Colon allow Seattle to get two runners on base.

``It was a great game overall,'' Colon said.

``I remembered what they did to me at home, and I prepared myself more.''

The Angels remained in a first-place tie in the American League West with Oakland, which also won Saturday.

Colon was so overpowering that Ichiro Suzuki's shutout-breaking solo home run in the sixth inning wouldn't have gotten over the wall without an assist from Angels right fielder Vladimir Guerrero.

Guerrero went back to the warning track on Ichiro's deep flyball, leaped slightly, and the ball deflected off his glove and over the right-field wall.

Guerrero delivered two hits, two RBI and scored two runs.

Keven Chavez, [phone]

keven.chavez(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 5 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) Bartolo Colon surrendered four hits and one run in eight innings to lead the Angels past the Mariners.

(2) Outfielder Vladimir Guerrero can't come up with Ichiro Suzuki's fly ball in the sixth inning Saturday. The ball cleared the wall for a home run.

John Froschauer/Associated Press

Box:

(1) ANGELS at SEATTLE

- Keven Chavez

(2) GAME RECAP

(3) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(4) ALMANAC 

(5) PLAYOFF RACE