SEATTLE (Ticker) -- The Seattle Mariners continue to falter under the lights.
Kevin Appier pitched six strong innings and Scott Spiezio broke out of a slump with three hits and three RBI as the Anaheim Angels posted a 5-1 victory over the Mariners.
Winless in three night games this season, the Mariners found themselves with an early deficit due to starter Joel Pineiro's wildness.
Perhaps distracted by the birth of his first child Monday, Pineiro opened the game by walking three of the first five batters he faced. With the Angels already leading, 1-0, Spiezio ended an 0-for-15 skid with a two-run single to give Anaheim a three-run bulge.
Spiezio added a solo home run in the ninth to cap the scoring and secure the victory for Appier (1-1), who allowed one run and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts for his career-best 16th win against Seattle.
"I thought I threw the ball good," Appier said. "A couple of times, I was a little out of sync. But I thought I had pretty good life on my stuff and I worked out of some jams."
"Let's just say he got back to basics," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "He had a good fastball, he moved it around. He changed speeds well, got in on lefthanded hitters with a little cutter. ... He really pitched a tremendous game."
Pineiro (0-1) settled down after hitting David Eckstein with a pitch in the second inning, retiring 12 straight Angels. The righthander yielded four runs and five hits in seven innings, walking three and striking out four.
"He really settled down after the first couple of innings," Seattle catcher Ben Davis said. "When he was missing, he was mostly missing up and away. Maybe he was a little fired up for the first home start. The adrenaline got the best of him."
"He walked three of the first five," manager Bob Melvin said. "The 2-2 pitch looked pretty good to Eckstein, but it wasn't meant to be there. If you walk a few guys early on, especially with a team like this, a team that lived last year on getting the big hit..."
The win was the first on the road for the Angels, who have not lost their first five games away from home since 1980.
Pineiro opened the game with walks to Eckstein and Darin Erstad before striking out Tim Salmon. Garret Anderson followed with an RBI single and Brad Fullmer drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases.
On an 0-1 offering, Spiezio stroked a single to center, plating two and giving the Angels a 3-0 advantage.
"I don't really think about that," Spiezio said of his recent slump. "It's something you don't reallly want to do, but I just focused on the four or five balls I had hit hard right at people and knew that I had something going."
Shawn Wooten grounded into an inning-ending double play, but Bengie Molina continued the attack in the second with a leadoff double. A groundout advanced the lumbering catcher to third and Eckstein was hit by a pitch, but Pineiro minimized the damage by getting Erstad to lift a sacrifice fly, the first of 12 consecutive outs.
Mike Cameron began the bottom of the frame with a triple but was stranded when Appier struck out John Mabry and retired Carlos Guillen and Davis.
"We didn't swing the bats all that well tonight," Davis said. "Appier threw pretty well. But we've got to make a better effort to get guys in."
Guillen cut Seattle's deficit to 4-1 with a solo homer in the sixth, but that was all the Mariners could muster against Appier and three relievers, who combined for three scoreless innings.
"(Appier) was throwing everything up there," Cameron said. "You get maybe one pitch every at-bat to hit and if you don't hit it, you are pretty much scrambling just to put the ball in play off a guy like that."
