ANAHEIM A couple of starting pitchers looking to find their form took the mound Sunday in Anaheim.

One, the Angels' Ervin Santana, definitely succeeded.

Simi Valley High graduate Jeff Weaver's effort for Seattle probably grades out as an incomplete, and not by his choice.

Santana, coming off two road losses in which he'd given up 11 earned runs in 8 1/3 innings, went back to looking like the pitcher who's such a favorite of other teams' trade inquiries. In seven innings, he allowed one run on a homer by Adrian Beltre, scattered six hits and struck out five in the Angels' 6-1 win.

"I thought he got real simple with his stuff," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia. "He was real aggressive with everything, and that's the talent he has. The last couple starts on the road, he was improvising a little bit more than he needs to ... I think he got back to basics."

Santana confirmed the simple approach.

"Mike told me about trying to get ahead of the hitters, and locating my fastball in," he said. "And after that, everything's going to be easier. And so in the bullpen, I was trying to locate my fastball and keep the ball down, and that's how it worked."

Hitting 97 mph on the radar gun, Santana threw 63 of 101 pitches for strikes and established his command in the second inning, when he gave up a leadoff triple to Raul Ibanez, but stranded him at third by inducing a pop-up by Richie Sexson, a shallow fly to right by noted Scioscia fan Jose Guillen and a groundout by Beltre.

"I just think, get ahead of the hitter and locate my fastball down and get a ground ball," said Santana. "And I just did a great job at that time."

Against Santana, the Mariners were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.

"There were a couple of at-bats today where he really picked up his stuff," Scioscia said. "You could see with Sexson and with Guillen with a couple guys on, he really picked it up and made pitches. The sign of a good pitcher is when he gets hot, there's an extra gear. And he had it."

If there's a mystery to Santana's young career, it's the dramatic disparity between his performance at home (he's 21-5 with a 3.01 ERA) and on the road (6-13, 6.78).

"I think you guys think too much about that," said Santana. "I don't worry about it, you know. I just try to do my job, do my best and see how it goes."

Scioscia acknowledges "a strong indicator" that Santana has been a different pitcher on the road, "although the sample size isn't like a guy that's pitched in this league for five or six years and you say, 'What's going on?' This could flip-flop pretty quick. Our feeling is that the type game he pitched today is the type game he needs to take on the road. So hopefully we'll just clean a couple things up with him and let his talent play wherever he's pitching."

Santana's performance completed an impressive weekend for Angels starters. Joe Saunders pitched six shutout innings on Friday, and earned a demotion to Triple-A Salt Lake City for his troubles. (Tough room.) Bartolo Colon, whose return from the disabled list was the reason Saunders was optioned, allowed one earned run in seven innings on Saturday in his first appearance since being sidelined by a torn rotator cuff last July. With Santana, that made two earned runs in 20 innings by the starters. Scioscia can presumably live with that.

"Our rotation we have now is the rotation we envisioned at some point in the season," he said.

That rotation with Santana, Colon, Simi Valley's Jered Weaver, John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar is expected to be whole when Escobar returns Tuesday.

"The five guys we have, we're confident we're going to do what we need to do from a rotation to be championship caliber," said Scioscia.

The Mariners, on the other hand, have rotation issues that weren't helped when manager Mike Hargrove gave Weaver a quick hook Sunday. In his third start in Seattle's weather-plagued season, he fell to 0-3, giving up three runs in three innings and pitching a bit better than that. He was consistently ahead of hitters and, with a little luck, might have escaped without giving up a run. The second inning hinged on an infield dribbler by Erick Aybar, while the run in the third came when a sinking liner off the glove of Ibanez went for an RBI triple by Casey Kotchman. It would have been a great play by Ibanez, but the near miss had to make Weaver feel a bit unlucky.

Weaver finished the third by striking out the last two batters he faced and then was gone in a decision that seems a bit shortsighted. The Mariners are going to need an effective Weaver, the sooner the better, and this might have been a chance for him to gain a little more command in his first start on regular rest. But Hargrove was unwilling to wait, a bit of impatience that may reflect a Mariners losing streak now at six games. Then again, it might just reflect Hargrove, a rather terse and hair-triggered sort.

Whatever the exact reasoning, the big-picture result was the same. The Angels came out of this series with a restored rotation. The Mariners, having given up 21 runs in three games, move on with their issues, not their pitching, intact.

-- Contact Star columnist David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.