M’s back to form

SEATTLE — For the first time since the break, the Seattle Mariners looked like their first-half selves.

As you might recall, it was not a pretty sight. Nor was the 8-2 loss to the Anaheim Angels a pretty game.

The most memorable moment came in the seventh inning when Vladimir Guerrero got upset after his check swing put his right hand in contact with a pitch from reliever Bobby Madritsch.

Guerrero left the game and had X-rays taken; they showed no damage.

But before he went, he had words for Bret Boone rather than Madritsch, a good choice since the pitcher had come down off the mound in case the Angels outfielder wanted to make a complaint to him.

Boone got hot and had to be restrained, and the benches and bullpens emptied and stood around, mostly asking why Guerrero got mad at the second baseman and not the big guy who hurt him.

Anyway, it came to nothing, as did the Seattle offense and Jamie Moyer’s hopes of snapping out of a malaise that has seen him go 0-5 in seven starts dating back to June 18. He’s now 6-7.

With five more earned runs allowed — three on Jose Guillen’s crusher in the fifth — the left-hander has allowed 25 in 34 innings since his last win.

The offense, which had averaged 5.6 runs in the previous eight games, showed sad first-halfness, gutting any production by hitting into rally-ruining double plays in the third, fourth and sixth.

While Moyer’s unfortunate penchant for allowing the long ball — 28, to tie Bartolo Colon for most in the league — hammered him later in the game, the Angels got their first run in a less thunderous fashion in the first inning.

Chone Figgins got the first hit, but Moyer picked him off, saving a run.

Guerrero and Guillen linked doubles for the run. The first blooped into short left-center field, where shortstop Jolbert Cabrera couldn’t get out to it and in front of Raul Ibanez, who is still seemingly hampered by the right hamstring injury that had him on the disabled list in June.

Guillen’s ball was in the left-center gap, where Ibanez again couldn’t reach the ball, and Guerrero scored to make it 1-0.

The Mariners scraped up a run off Anaheim starter John Lackey to tie the score in the bottom of the inning.

Ichiro led off with a single — his 12th hit in four games running his hit streak to 15 games — stole second, made third on Randy Winn’s grounder to the right side and scored on Boone’s sacrifice fly to center.

Figgins drove a hanging changeup off the foul pole in left leading off the third to give Anaheim a 2-1 lead, but Moyer seemed to settle down after that, although the Angels were putting the ball in the air a lot against him.

The little lefty retired six straight, the first five on fly balls and the last on a nice backhand play by Cabrera in the left-side hole on a Tim Salmon grounder.

While Seattle did waste Edgar Martinez’s leadoff single in the second, it blew even better bids in the third and fourth when Lackey induced inning-ending double plays each time.

In the third, Justin Leone led off with a single, and Ichiro was robbed by David Eckstein behind second to force Leone at second. But Winn singled to put two on before Boone bashed a 1-2 pitch right at second baseman Adam Kennedy for a 4-6-3 double play.

The Mariners came right back at Lackey in the fourth. Ibanez led with a single.

Lackey fanned Martinez, but Scott Spiezio singled and Cabrera did a good job of fighting off a 1-2 pitch for a flare single to center that loaded the bases. Dan Wilson, making only his fourth start since the break and batting 1 for 11 on the homestand, hit the first pitch into a 6-4-3 double play.

Following the offensive ineptitude against Lackey — another pitcher having a poor year that Seattle made look good — Moyer left his team with an uphill climb when Guillen pounded a gopher ball out to right center for three runs and a 5-1 Angels lead.