Angels complete four-game sweep of Seattle, 4-2

Just when the Angels have found their stride, their four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners complete with Sunday’s crisply played 4-2 victory in Angel Stadium, along comes the four-day All-Star break.

Will it kill the momentum of a team that is a major league-best 19-6 since June 13 and has won eight series in a row to pull within one game of the Texas Rangers in the American League West?

Or will the good times continue to roll when the Angels, who won Sunday on Alberto Callaspo’s two-out, two-run double in the eighth inning, resume play after the break Friday night in Oakland?

“I don’t know … I’m not Nostradamus,” said right fielder Torii Hunter, who had two hits and a run and made a diving catch to rob Dustin Ackley of extra bases in the third inning. “I can’t predict that. I have no idea what’s in store for us.”

Neither does Mike Scioscia, but the Angels manager isn’t going to fret about the layoff.

“I think we have this same conversation every year,” Scioscia said. “These guys need a break. There’s no doubt there’s fatigue in that clubhouse. Guys have been playing a lot, they’ve been playing hard, and they’ve been playing well.”

Especially right-hander Dan Haren, who came within one out of his second straight complete game Sunday, allowing two runs and five hits in 82/3 innings, striking out eight and walking two to improve to 10-5 and lower his earned-run average to 2.61.

With a runner on second in the ninth, Haren’s 113th pitch of the game was popped to third by Adam Kennedy for the second out. Up stepped Franklin Gutierrez, who drove a Haren cut-fastball to the left-field wall for an out in his previous at-bat.

Out to the mound came Scioscia, out of the game went Haren, who received a standing ovation, and in came closer Jordan Walden, who blew a 99-mph fastball by Gutierrez for strike three and save No. 20.

“Any pitcher wants to finish the game, but I respect the manager’s decision,” said Haren, who outdueled two of baseball’s best pitchers, Detroit’s Justin Verlander on Tuesday and Seattle’s Felix Hernandez on Sunday, to win his last two starts.

“It’s not that bad of an option to go to. Me with about 120 pitches or Walden, fresh, throwing 100 mph? It worked out fine, and everyone’s happy.”

Haren gave up a two-out, two-run single to Kennedy in the first but retired 21 of the next 24 batters before Ackley’s leadoff double in the ninth.

The Angels tied the score, 2-2, in the fourth when Callaspo singled and Mark Trumbo hit a two-run home run to left, his team-leading 17th of the season and third in three games.

The rookie first baseman is hitting .301 (22 for 73) with six homers and 12 runs batted in over his last 20 games, raising his average from .247 to .260.

His 17 homers are the most by an Angels rookie before the All-Star break since Tim Salmon hit 17 in 1993. The club record is 20, set by Wally Joyner in 1986.

And Trumbo isn’t bottom-feeding. In addition to Hernandez, the 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner, Trumbo has homered against David Price, Jon Lester, Tim Hudson, Fausto Carmona and Bartolo Colon.

“He’s getting comfortable,” Scioscia said. “Mark studies pitchers, he studies the game, he studies his at-bats. He has a better understanding of what pitchers are trying to do now than he did coming out of spring training.

“You’re seeing that power playing in the big leagues, and that’s what’s impressive. You see a lot of guys come up with tools and maybe it doesn’t come out on the field, but Mark has figured out a way to square up balls and drive the ball.”

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