Guardado back in form for M”s
ARLINGTON, Texas – Eddie Guardado is starting to feel like his old self, which could be a good thing, indeed, for these new Seattle Mariners.
Behind a marvelous start from Gil Meche and backed by home runs from Ichiro Suzuki and Richie Sexson, Seattle scored four late runs to beat the Texas Rangers 4-1 on Thursday and take two of three games in the series.
Guardado saved both wins. Sidelined much of the spring with a strained hamstring, the veteran left-hander barely convinced the team to put him on the 25-man opening-day roster – he was that close to going on the disabled list. And then he coughed up a game on April 9 that had manager Mike Hargrove explaining that Guardado wasn’t quite “there yet.”
As the Mariners climbed back to .500, Guardado has saved seven of their 11 victories. If he’s not yet in midseason form, he’s close.
“I’m feeling like Eddie Guardado again,” he said.
What precisely does that feel like?
“I’m throwing that first-pitch strike, keep the ball down and getting that first batter,” Guardado explained. “You come into the ninth inning of a close game, the first guy gets on base, the other team is thinking, ‘We’re alive!’ You get that first batter, they know the chances are slimmer.”
At Arlington, Meche came in 1-3, and against the Rangers his career earned run average was 7.25.
“That had to change,” Meche said. “To win here, I knew I had to make my pitches. You make a mistake here, it goes out. Hank Blalock proved that in the fourth inning.”
Meche left a fastball up and over the plate and Blalock hit it 415 feet for his fourth home run and a 1-0 Texas lead. Until the seventh, that one run was all anyone scored.
Texas starter Chris Young was outpitching Meche, if barely. Though he rolled off six shutout innings, he needed help and got it – right fielder Richard Hidalgo took a home run away from Bret Boone by reaching over the wall in right-center field and pulling back his big fly ball.
Seattle got even in the seventh inning, loading the bases with one out and getting a run when Randy Winn grounded out.
Ichiro gave Meche a lead in the eighth with his second homer of the season – and the ninth against the Rangers among his 39 career homers.
Sexson led of the ninth with a homer and the Mariners added another run on a wild pitch.
Guardado put down the Rangers, and he picked up the save for the fifth time in the last six Mariners wins.