VALDES SHARP, GARCIA BETTER TWO RUNS HOLD UP AS ANGELS LOSE SEATTLE 2, ANGELS 1.

Byline: Jim McConnell Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - In an old-fashioned pitching duel, youngster Freddy Garcia of the Seattle Mariners outhurled veteran right-hander Ismael Valdes of the Angels as Seattle came away with a 2-1 victory Saturday night in front of 34,780 at Edison Field.

Valdes' American League debut could hardly have been better, for four innings at least. He did not allow a hit and struck out five as the Mariners failed to hit the ball out of the infield. The only blemish was a second-inning walk to Stan Javier, a former teammate of Valdes' on the Dodgers. Valdes threw 54 pitches through four innings, 40 of them for strikes.

The only thing close to a hit by either team in the first four innings was in the first, when designated hitter Edgar Martinez's hard grounder up the middle was knocked down by a diving shortstop David Eckstein, who had plenty of time to get up and throw out Martinez at first.

The Mariners finally broke through against Valdes in the fifth, although they didn't exactly hit rockets. A two-out walk to Carlos Guillen (hitting .170 at the time) got things rolling for Seattle. Dan Wilson followed with the first hit of the night, a grounder between third baseman Troy Glaus and the bag. Glaus knocked it down, but didn't have a play.

David Bell, the No. 9 hitter in the Mariners lineup, worked the count to 3-2 and looped a ball into shallow right field. It fell in front of the charging Orlando Palmeiro for a hit, scoring Guillen and sending Wilson to third. Ichiro Suzuki cashed in Wilson with a well-placed ground single to left just past shortstop Eckstein.

Valdes got out of the inning when Al Martin flied out to right, but the Mariners had the only runs they would need on this night.

Valdes pitched six innings, making 66 of his 104 pitches strikes. The only well-hit ball off him was John Olerud's double to left with one out in the sixth, but Valdes escaped by getting Bret Boone to fly out and Guillen to ground out.

``Both Valdes and Garcia pitched extremely well,'' Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. ``Just an old-fashioned pitching duel, and unfortunately we came out on the short end of things.

``That's the way we are expecting Valdes to pitch, he's capable of doing that for us every time out. He's going to win some games for us, no doubt about that. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get him any runs to work with tonight.''

Garcia did not allow a hit until Palmeiro's hit-and-run single to right with one out in the sixth. That hit sent Eckstein, who had walked, to third, and he scored the only Angels run on Troy Glaus' sacrifice fly. But Garcia got out of the jam by retiring Garret Anderson on a tapper back to the box.

Adam Kennedy tripled into the left-field corner with two outs in the seventh for the Angels' second and final hit.

ANGELS vs. SEATTLE

Time: 1:05 p.m., at Edison Field

TV/Radio: Fox Sports Net; 1540-AM, 1090-AM (Spanish)

Matchup: The Mariners' John Halama (1-1, 5.58 ERA closes the series against the Angels' Pat Rapp (0-2, 13.00 ERA).- Jim McConnell

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ANGELS vs. SEATTLE (see text)