ANAHEIM -- Two days after he was moved from the leadoff spot to the nine-hole and one day after a local newspaper column questioned the longevity of his career, David Eckstein hit back.

And hit back, and hit back, and hit back some more.

Eckstein went 4-for-4 with a home run, a double and three RBIs, pacing the Angels to an emotional 6-3 win over the division-rival Seattle Mariners before 40,651 at Edison Field.

Eckstein had been mired in an 8-for-55 (.145) month, including a 1-for-28 slide going into Wednesday, that had brought down his season batting average to .228 and left his on-base percentage languishing at .311. Both figures were the lowest of all Angels regulars.

But Wednesday night was his night.

He doubled in a run off Jamie Moyer in the second, singled off Moyer in the fourth, legged out an infield hit in the sixth and blasted a two-run homer off Matt White to seal the Angels' win in the bottom of the eighth.

"I just went out there and swung the bat," Eckstein said. "That's all I thought about. But it's only one game."

With the win, the Angels climb back to within 12˝ games of Seattle in the American League West standings. Coupled with an Oakland loss to Texas on Wednesday, Anaheim is within 6˝ games of the Wild Card.

Those lofty goals are not the first things mentioned in the Angels clubhouse these days.

Winning the game at hand is much more important, the players say, especially for a defending world champion that has been remarkably consistent in its inconsistency.

Going into Wednesday, the Angels had lost eight of their last 11 games at hand, were back to two games below .500 and were in the unenviable position of meeting Moyer, who had put up a stingy ERA of 0.82 in three starts (two wins, one 2-0 loss) against Anaheim this year.

Moyer looked like his molasses-throwing, methodical and masterful self in the first inning, setting down the Angels in order with his impressive array of offspeed stuff.

The second inning was a different story.

Garret Anderson led off by ripping a line drive down the left-field line for his AL-leading 28th double of the season and Shawn Wooten followed with a walk.

Moyer got Bengie Molina and Benji Gil on flyouts to center, but he couldn't get Eric Owens, who singled in Anderson for the Angels' first run.

After Owens came Eckstein, who peeled off some rust with a double in the left-center-field gap that scored Wooten for a 2-0 lead.

The Angels piled on another run in the third when Troy Glaus worked a leadoff walk, Anderson singled him to third, and Wooten delivered an RBI double that made it 3-0.

Angels starter Ramon Ortiz, who held the Mariners scoreless through 7 2/3 innings in Seattle last week, looked very similar through the first four innings, but a high pitch count caught up to him in the fifth.

With one out, Ichiro Suzuki reached base on an Eckstein throwing error, took second on a Carlos Guillen single and reached third when a Bret Boone single loaded the bases.

Edgar Martinez followed with an authoritative two-RBI single to left that cut the Angels' lead to 3-2 before Anaheim escaped further damage on a 3-6-1 double play.

Ortiz scampered over to first base to complete the twin killing and raised his fist to the air in celebration.

The party continued when Wooten hooked a Moyer pitch around the foul pole in left in the bottom of that inning for a solo homer that gave the Angels a 4-2 lead.

But Seattle fought back in the top of the sixth, chasing Ortiz on two doubles, the latter an RBI two-base hit down the right-field line by Mark McLemore, the 1,500th career hit for the veteran utility man.

Luckily for Ortiz, the Angels prevented more bleeding with another defensive gem with runners on first and third and Ichiro at the plate.

Ichiro, who brought a 19-game hitting streak to the game, slapped a grounder at Eckstein, who fielded it and immediately threw home before Molina tossed to Glaus, who tagged McLemore and then shuttled the ball to second baseman Gil, who tagged Dan Wilson to complete a 6-2-5-4 inning-ending double play.

"I said, 'Oh my god,' I'm in luck today," said Ortiz, who won his ninth game of the season.

Then, with the Mariners creeping dangerously close, the Angels summoned their go-to reliever, Brendan Donnelly, and he did not disappoint.

Donnelly added two more scoreless frames to his spectacular season résumé (he has given up two earned runs in 40 innings for a 0.45 ERA), striking out three over the seventh and eighth.

"A lot of good things happened tonight," Donnelly said. "The thing we're looking for is consistency, which we haven't had. If we do the little things right, we should come out on top most of the time."

That's what Eckstein helped them do in the bottom of the eighth.

With Jeff DaVanon on first, the smallest Angel uncorked the biggest hit of the night, a line-drive into the first row by the foul pole in left field that gave the Angels a three-run lead. Troy Percival pitched a perfect ninth for his 13th save.

"There's nothing that's ever going to question, in my mind, the character of our club," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

"We're going to keep moving forward."