SCHOENEWEIS IS HANDED FIRST LOSS SEATTLE 8, ANGELS 2.

Byline: Joe Haakenson Staff Writer

SEATTLE - Scott Schoeneweis had gotten all the good bounces leading up to Sunday's game against the Seattle Mariners. Specifically, the bounces came in the form of ground balls to his infielders.

But in the Angels' 8-2 loss in front of 42,940 at Safeco Field, he got bounces of a different sort and was tagged with his first loss of the season.

In particular, it was the sixth inning when nothing went Schoeneweis' way. First, there was the line drive by Dan Wilson that nailed Schoeneweis on his lower left back. Schoeneweis (4-1) stayed in the game.

``I've pitched through chemotherapy,'' said Schoeneweis, who overcame testicular cancer while in college at Duke. ``No matter how much it hurt, I didn't want to come out of the game. That shows weakness.''

And there was Mark McLemore's fly ball to right field that bounced out of right fielder Tim Salmon's glove for an error. That scored the second run of the inning and knocked Schoeneweis out of the game.

What was a 2-1 game going into the inning was now 4-1, and Schoeneweis was replaced by Eric Weaver. The Mariners scored twice more in the inning - including once when center fielder Garret Anderson couldn't hold on to a long fly ball by Mike Cameron - to go up 6-1 heading to the seventh. Schoeneweis was charged with all four runs in the inning.

``That inning could have been a lot better than it was, but that's baseball,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

Schoeneweis walked a season-high five batters while giving up six runs (five earned) and six hits in 5 1/3 innings. As a team, the Angels walked 12 Mariners, tying a club record for walks in a nine-inning game).

But Schoeneweis was not upset with the way he pitched.

``I did what I wanted to,'' he said. ``They took a lot of pitches and worked deep into the count. I don't think I got crushed. I'll stick with it and do the same thing next time. I'm not going to change anything. . . . They took a lot of really close pitches. I don't know how they did it, because I can't throw those pitches any better.''

Scioscia agreed.

``He made good pitches, but they're a very disciplined bunch of hitters,'' he said. ``They have some veteran hitters that were patient with him. They came out and just did a good job. It wasn't anything Scott did or didn't do.''

Meanwhile, the Angels hitters were not nearly as disciplined with Mariners starter John Halama (4-0). Halama, who throws a variety of off- speed stuff, held the Angels to one run and two hits through six innings.

``The guy was throwing his changeup for strikes,'' said Salmon, who went 0 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts. ``He gets you thinking about the change-up, and that makes the fastball more effective.''

The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Anderson's two-out RBI single. But Halama held them without another hit until leaving after the sixth.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) The Angels' Garret Anderson misplays a deep fly ball hit by the Mariners' Mike Cameron in the sixth inning Sunday.

(2) Angels' starting pitcher Scott Schoeneweis racts to a balk called against him during Sunday's loss to the Mariners.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press