Figgins brings back memories in rout of Angels

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Chone Figgins came back to haunt his former Angels teammates Sunday, going three for four with a triple, scoring three runs and turning three nice double plays to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 12-6 Cactus League victory before a sellout crowd of nearly 9,000 at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

Figgins, who spent his entire major league career with the Angels before leaving as a free agent over the winter, also stole a base and drove in a run as the Angels slipped to 4-11-2 in the spring. That leaves them on pace for their worst exhibition record in 30 years.

‘Believe me, you’re out there to win a game every time you take the field. But there are things within a game that are important that you’re really excited about,’ said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, who said he likes the way some of his hitters have worked the count while others have begun driving the ball -- even if some of those drives had ended up as outs.

“Results are measured differently in spring training than what you think about the final score,” he said. “Sometimes there are going to be some rough edges that will move you further along. Specifically on the pitching side.”

The pitching side wasn’t kind to the Angels on Sunday, when potential opening day starter Jered Weaver was pounded for six runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings -- both his longest and worst outing of the spring. But he didn’t get much help from his defense, with shortstop Gary Patchett committing two errors behind him.

Weaver said he was working on a new pitch, a late-breaking ‘cutter/slider’ that new Angels player Joel Pineiro taught him. And though he got three groundouts and a popup with the pitch, he said he also missed the strike zone with it ‘eight of 10 times.’

Weaver is also experimenting with a new grip on his two-seam fastball.

‘The last two starts I’ve been throwing it a lot,’ he said of the fastball. ‘Today I threw it a lot and it was more on the plate. That and the slider are just going to be two things I’m going to work on here. I’m going to throw those a lot in the next two starts I think I’ve got going into the season.’

Relievers Fernando Rodney and Kevin Jepsen each threw scoreless innings although Rodney did load the bases, allowing two hits and a walk

On offense, the Angels got two hits and a run from Maicer Izturis, who raised his spring average to .379. Kendry Morales had a single and two runs batted in, giving him nine for the spring. He’s hitting .414.

Torii Hunter also had two hits and drove in his first two runs of the spring.

The game started with three umpires, but Dale Scott left shortly after getting hit in the arm by a pitch from Rodney in the fifth inning. Alfonso Marquez volunteered to put on a chest protector and shin guards and go behind the plate, but it took him nearly a full inning to change, forcing Tim McClelland to call balls and strikes from behind the pitcher.

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Tempe, Ariz.