ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Justin Bour shouted, turned his head and headed back toward the bench.
He wasn’t watching the ball, but Dee Gordon was watching him.
Bour blundered again on the bases, this time failing to run out a popup that the Seattle Mariners turned into an easy double play Friday night in a 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
“There’s no excuse for it. It’s terrible,” Bour said.
After Mike Trout hit a two-run homer in the Angels eighth that made it 3-all, Albert Pujols was hit by a pitch with one out.
Speedy Brian Goodwin came in to pinch-run and was on the move when Bour popped up to the right side of the infield. Frustrated, Bour yelled and turned away, walking back toward the dugout without following the flight of the ball.
Gordon, the second baseman, saw Bour wasn’t running and alertly called for the Mariners to let the ball drop as Goodwin retreated. Overshifted third baseman Ryon Healy picked up the ball on one hop and tossed it to Tim Beckham at second base, and the shortstop had all day to lob an easy relay to first for an inning-ending double play.
“Dee yelled at me, he said, ‘Let it drop! Let it drop! Let it drop!'” Healy recalled. “I let it drop and from there I picked the ball up, and I looked at first, and I looked at Dee and I said, ‘OK, what do I do now?’ He said, ‘Throw it to second,’ so I said, ‘OK.’ So I threw it to second and all of a sudden we had the double play.”
For Healy, it was a video game in real life.
“I felt like he was just paying ‘MLB The Show’ and he just controlled me on a little controller,” Healy said. “But it was awesome.”
Last Saturday at Wrigley Field, Bour singled in the first inning and tried to advance on an overthrow. Bour lumbered toward second base, slid in and was called safe. But convinced he was out, he simply left the bag and began walking back to the dugout, and was tagged by the Cubs’ Javier Baez halfway between second and first.
“It’s embarrassing,” Bour said of Friday’s play. “It’s something that you’re taught since the day you start playing baseball.”
“You can’t sugarcoat it,” he said, adding, “You got to own it, got to accept it, make sure it never happens again.”
Beckham and Omar Narvaez hit back-to-back home runs off Cody Allen (0-2) to begin the ninth inning for Seattle, sending the Angels to their fifth straight loss.
Jay Bruce and Dan Vogelbach connected earlier as the Mariners extended their major league home run lead to 49 in 23 games.
Trout’s home run, his sixth, was his first since returning to the lineup Monday following a right groin strain.
Gordon made sure the Angels’ momentum did not last long. While manager Scott Servais lauded Gordon for the seeing the double-play chance unfold, Gordon just shrugged off his contribution.
“It was just part of the game, paying attention to the situation,” said Gordon, who admitted he has tried the play before, but only while letting the ball fall to the grass where the bounce is more predictable. “I was just trying to help us win.
“I would rather have (Goodwin) off the base and (Bour) on. Then I saw he didn’t run, and playing with him (with the Marlins), I knew he wasn’t going to be able to beat it. I’m glad we made the right decision to go to second base first.”
Zac Rosscup (2-0) picked up the win, inducing the popup from Bour. Roenis Elias pitched a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.
MUCH APPRECIATED
Mariners starter Marco Gonzales was six outs away from picking up his fifth victory of the season before Trout spoiled his solid outing with the home run. The left-hander was removed from the game immediately following the blast.
Gonzales gave up three runs on eight hits over seven-plus innings and gained even more appreciation from his manager Servais, who trusted him in a key spot late in the game.
“I hope that he does (trust me) and I hope to keep proving that I am the guy that needs to be in there to keep us in the ballgame” Gonzales said. “I have the utmost confidence in myself also to go out there, and those are the situations that I want to be in.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: Shoehi Ohtani had a pregame batting practice session with his teammates for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery in October and said he hopes to return to action for a March 4-5 series against the Houston Astros. The Angels have not given a timetable for his return.
UP NEXT: Mariners LHP Yusei Kikuchi (0-1, 4.23 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound Saturday for his sixth career start, one outing after receiving the first decision of his career. Angels RHP Trevor Cahill (1-1, 4.50) will enter his fifth start having gone 5-1 with a 3.08 ERA in his last 11 starts against Seattle.
