Fool me once, shame on, well, a bunch of Angels

The play had no bearing on the final result of Sunday’s game between the Angels and Seattle Mariners, but it added entertainment value and a few laughs.

With Seattle’s Leonys Martin on first base and no outs in the top of the ninth inning, Martin took off for second on a stolen-base attempt as Ketel Marte lifted a routine fly ball to center field.

Like most middle infielders in such situations, Angels second baseman Cliff Pennington pretended to field a ground ball and flip to shortstop Andrelton Simmons, who reached up with his glove as if to receive the ball, came across the bag and simulated a throw to first.

The deke so fooled Martin that he was still standing on second when Mike Trout’s throw from center field reached first to complete a double play.

“It was a group effort, a lot of people were involved,” Simmons said. “[Third baseman Yunel] Escobar was part of it. He was yelling a lot of stuff. Cliff was yelling. I was yelling. A lot of guys were making a lot of noise. [Martin] didn’t know where to look.”

Mood swing

Ji-Man Choi, the reserve first baseman-outfielder from South Korea, experienced the highs and lows of the game in the span of about 30 seconds Saturday night.

The Angels were leading, 3-2, in the seventh when Choi singled off Seattle ace Felix Hernandez for his first major league hit. Choi got the ball as a souvenir.

The euphoria of the hit hadn’t worn off when Choi was picked off by Hernandez to end the inning before the right-hander even delivered a pitch to Escobar.

“Yeah, I was disappointed,” Choi said through an interpreter. “At that moment, I thought it would be a good idea to steal. The result did not come out as I hoped, but that was the reason I did it. I was trying to get a good jump.”

Manager Mike Scioscia said Choi, who walked in the fifth, was trying to replicate the jump he got on a pitch Escobar struck out on to end that inning.

“He was trying to be aggressive and got caught leaning,” Scioscia said. “It’s a function of inexperience, but he’s going to learn that these are things that are occasionally going to come up.”

Short hops

The Angels and Mariners took 35 minutes to complete a first inning that included 66 pitches, seven runs and six hits, including two homers, on Sunday. They played the remaining eight innings in 2 hours 8 minutes. … Seattle scored its final two runs on Seth Smith’s two-run homer off reliever Cory Rasmus in the ninth. Escobar hit a solo homer for the Angels in the eighth. … Trout had three outfield assists in his first two-plus big league seasons from 2011 to 2013. He has 13 outfield assists in his last two-plus seasons, from 2014 through Sunday. … Huston Street’s save Saturday night was the 320th of his career, moving him into 18th place on baseball’s all-time saves list.