Bullpen betrays M’s
BALTIMORE – Surprise, surprise: The Baltimore Orioles own the best record in the American League and the Seattle Mariners are in last place.
Sure, the season is only in its second week. Yet the rebuilding Orioles already have plenty to celebrate, most notably their first four-game sweep of Seattle since 1999 and their best start in 10 years.
Aubrey Huff homered to break an eighth-inning tie as Baltimore beat Seattle 5-4 Monday on a day Ichiro Suzuki collected his 1,600th career hit.
“As a team, as a whole, we’re playing great baseball right now,” Huff said. “I know it’s early, but we just swept a pretty good team over there. So obviously we’re feeling pretty good, and we just want to keep up the momentum.”
The Mariners and Orioles were involved in one of baseball’s biggest trades in the off-season, a 5-for-1 swap that sent Erik Bedard to Seattle. Baltimore got George Sherrill and Adam Jones. Both played key roles in the sweep.
Sherrill pitched a perfect ninth inning Monday for his fourth save and third in the series. Jones had an RBI on Sunday and scored the tying run Monday to set the stage for Huff’s winner.
Bedard, meanwhile, was scratched from his scheduled start Sunday and has only pitched in one game.
Another Baltimore import, Dennis Sarfate, earned wins Sunday and Monday. Obtained from Houston in the Miguel Tejada trade, Sarfate (2-0) retired all four batters he faced Monday before Sherrill closed it out.
“That’s the best bullpen in the league, in my eyes. When you got guys that can come in for lefties or righties or go two innings or close, it’s fun,” Sarfate said.
Baltimore’s bullpen has allowed two runs in 21 1/3 innings (0.84 ERA). Seattle relievers yielded six runs over 7 2/3 innings in the series, including Huff’s homer off Eric O’Flaherty (0-1).
Think the Mariners miss closer J.J. Putz, who’s on the disabled list?
“It’s kind of a repeat performance,” manager John McLaren said. “We had a tough time out there. (Huff) had a good pitch to hit. … I can’t explain it. Eric is a big part of our bullpen and I don’t know if he has lost his confidence.”
Melvin Mora also homered, and Brian Roberts had three hits for the Orioles, who haven’t been this successful early since going 7-1 in 1998.
Seattle was betrayed by its bullpen, but the offense wasn’t much better after a quick start. The Mariners went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position Monday and were 3 for 19 in the series.
Suzuki opened with his 26th career leadoff homer and singled in the seventh for hit No. 1,600. Raul Ibanez homered in the first and drove in two runs, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Orioles’ surprisingly robust attack.