Meche surfs past San Francisco, Bonds
SEATTLE – Now this was a day at the beach.
Gil Meche had his regular start in the Seattle rotation pushed back two days because he’d come up with a sore back last week in California after playing with his kids at the ocean. He might consider making it his new routine.
The Mariners right-hander has rarely looked sharper, throwing a complete-game five-hitter in cruising past the San Francisco Giants 8-1 Saturday afternoon at Safeco Field.
Richie Sexson, Jeremy Reed and Raul Ibanez all had home runs for the Mariners, who again were buoyed by the emotion supplied by fans flocking to Safeco for a chance to see a sliver of Giants slugger Barry Bonds’ assault on baseball’s career home run record. This time 45,229 showed up – Seattle’s first sellout since Opening Day – but Bonds didn’t connect as he did Friday night, settling for a lazy opposite-field double in three at-bats.
Instead, the firepower was supplied by the Mariners, starting with Sexson’s two-run homer in the second off Giants starter Jason Schmidt (6-3) and capped by a three-run shot by Ibanez in the seventh.
“We always like playing here, but it’s nice to pack it,” said Sexson, whose blast was the 250th of his career. “We realize Barry’s in town, but there’s a lot more energy and we feed off it. I know I do. I like playing in front of big crowds.”
They might stay big if the M’s can continue their current momentum on an upcoming nine-game road trip that follows today’s series windup. Seattle has won 11 of its last 16, even after being swept last week in Oakland, and is 5-0 in interleague play – and Meche (7-4) has won six of his last eight starts.
“My fastball was jumping out of my hand like it hasn’t done all year,” said Meche. “I think a couple of extra days helped me out a bit.”
An off day was going to get Meche extra rest anyway, but manager Mike Hargrove flip-flopped his scheduled start with that of Felix Hernandez, which matched Meche with Schmidt, the Giants ace who was born in Lewiston and grew up in Kelso, Wash.
“I felt like I could have pitched yesterday,” Meche said. “I gave Felix a little hell about that one when I looked at who I would be facing.”
But Meche was dominant – and Schmidt not so much.
After issuing a leadoff walk to Randy Winn, Meche retired the next 10 Giants, then yielded a single to Ray Durham. Nine more Giants went in order before Bonds’ double, and Meche carried a shutout into the ninth when Durham managed to drag a fat changeup over the fence in the right-field corner.
Durham noted that Meche was “throwing his off-speed pitches for strikes in fastball counts,” but, in fact, Meche only went to three-ball counts twice. He struck out seven.
“This makes me realize I don’t have to throw every single day between starts,” said Meche. “I may try to rearrange things and not play catch tomorrow or the next day and see what happens. (Jarrod) Washburn mentioned that in spring training. It’s something I’ve never really done, but I see the advantage of it after this start.”
Then again, he may not want to change anything. He’s allowed just four runs in his last three starts.
Schmidt will chalk it up to it being one of those days, though, unfortunately for him, it came in front of a large number of friends and relatives who made the trip from his hometown. Sexson took a fastball away over the center-field fence for a 2-0 Seattle lead, and one out later Reed lined a changeup into the right-field seats.
Ibanez doubled home another run in the third, and it got away from the Giants completely in the seventh when Yuniesky Betancourt opened with a triple and Adrian Beltre chased Schmidt with a double. Ibanez’s 13th homer came off reliever Kevin Correia.
It was the first time in 10 starts that Schmidt had surrendered more than two runs.
Ichiro Suzuki’s fourth-inning single gave him a hit in 17 consecutive games, one short of the streak he put together earlier in the season. He owns the two longest such streaks in the American League this year.