The Mariners close out the home stand with a sweep of the Angels

The Mariners finished a strong home stand on Sunday as they took three of four from the Astros and swept the Angels. They picked up their second sweep of the season and first since April 15th-17th against the Reds. Seattle has now been in first place in the American League West for 21 days. They continued to show their dominance over the AL West by taking down the Angels on Sunday 5-1. Here is how the Mariners series finale against the Angels went.

Both starting pitchers Luis Castillo and Griffin Canning had strong outings today, as Sunday's match-up turned into a real pitchers' duel. Luis Castillo, the Mariners starter had another superb outing for the M's. Tossing seven shut-out innings for the Mariners as he led his team to victory. Castillo's line for Sunday was 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, as he picked up the win. The Angels hitters could only muster two hits, as Castillo dominated the Angels lineup.

Luis Castillo capped a fantastic series for the Mariners in a sweep

After a strong offensive performance in Saturday's 9-0 win over the Angels, the Mariners were held in check today by Angels' starting pitcher Griffin Canning. Canning matched wits with Luis Castillo, as he gave up just one run through six innings of work. He went 6.2 IP, allowed one earned run, had four strikeouts, gave up four hits, and walked one. Luke Raley was able to tag Griffin Canning with a solo home run to right in the fourth to break the scoreless tie.

Ryne Stanek came on in relief in the bottom of the eighth inning and pitched a scoreless eighth. Stranding Luis Rengifo at first after singling with one out in the top of the eighth, as Stanek struck out Mickey Moniak, and got Taylor Ward to foul out to Josh Rojas. Preserving the Mariners 1-0 lead over the Angels.

The Mariners capitalized off an error by Angels shortstop Zach Neto in the bottom of the eighth on a ground ball which would have ended the inning. Neto's error loaded the bases for the Mariners with two outs. Angels' reliever Luis Garcia hit Luke Raley by a pitch which forced in a run, giving the Mariners a 2-0 lead. Mitch Garver then blew the game wide open with a two-out, bases clearing double to extend the M's lead to 5-0.

Mike Baumann came in to close out the win in the ninth inning after the Mariners provided much needed insurance in the eighth. The Angels scratched across an unearned run in the ninth, but it did not affect the outcome of the game. As Mike Baumann finished out the ninth inning to give the Mariners their 34th win of the season and their second sweep of the year, as the M's won 5-1.

The Mariners finished the home stand 6-1 and now head to Oakland, for a three-game series with the A's that begins Tuesday, after an off-day on Monday (the M's first off-day in 17 games). The Mariners hit the road a mighty happy club following a 5-1 win on Sunday.