Hernandez pitches brilliantly in M’s loss
SEATTLE – A stellar pitching duel between Felix Hernandez and Francisco Liriano ended with ire and spittle Tuesday night at Safeco Field.
It also resulted in a 2-1 Seattle Mariners loss to the Minnesota Twins, one that Mariners manager Eric Wedge saw until one out remained in the game.
Wedge was ejected after a close play when second-base umpire Jerry Meals called out Miguel Olivo for the second out in the bottom of the ninth.
The Mariners trailed by a run and Olivo on first base after he’d drawn a one-out walk off Twins closer Matt Capps. Jack Cust hit a grounder to third, where the Twins’ Danny Valencia fielded the ball and threw to second, and Meals called Olivo out.
Olivo immediately got into Meals’ face to argue and Wedge was soon to follow, spitting as he sprang from the top step of the dugout and then giving the umpire such an earful that he finally was tossed. It was Wedge’s first ejection as the Mariners’ manager.
“I thought Miguel beat it, but obviously they didn’t see it that way,” Wedge said. “It was a big play late in the ballgame. When you’re in a tight ballgame, that’s usually the difference.”
Adam Kennedy, pinch-hitting for Jack Wilson, grounded out to second base to end the game with Carlos Peguero on deck prepared to pinch-hit for Mike Wilson.
“Who knows what happens from there? It gets us another man down the line and we’ve got a runner in scoring position,” Wedge said. “It’s a totally different game. That’s the way it goes.”
It became a bitter end to a game that had a frustrating beginning for the Mariners, who’ve lost seven of their past eight games.
The Twins scored twice in the first inning off Hernandez, who struggled with his control and walked two of the first three hitters he faced. Michael Cuddyer delivered a two-out, two-run single on a fastball that Hernandez left too high in the strike zone.
“I don’t know what happened in the first inning,” said Hernandez, who walked leadoff hitter Denard Span on four pitches. “I was wild. I made one mistake against Cuddyer and he got that hit for two runs.”
Hernandez allowed only two more hits and a walk, and he pitched eight innings.
“Like we’ve talked about so many times, he rights himself and you look up and it’s the eighth inning,” Wedge said. “I thought he was really good his last four or five innings.”
The Mariners’ offense never found that kind of rhythm against Liriano, a left-hander who pitched a no-hitter earlier this month but also went into Tuesday night’s game with a 7.07 earned run average.
Chone Figgins had the Mariners’ only hit through four innings, and the Mariners’ only run came in the fifth when Liriano hit Brendan Ryan with two outs, Michael Saunders followed with a single and Ichiro Suzuki knocked Ryan home with a single to center.
The Mariners didn’t have another baserunnner until Olivo’s walk one out into the ninth. Liriano pitched seven innings, allowing three hits and a walk, and struck out nine.
“Offensively, we’ve got to do a better job of squaring the ball up,” Wedge said. “They’re battling and working to get better counts, but when we do get better counts we can’t keep missing pitches.”
Gutierrez ready to go
The Mariners announced after Tuesday night’s game that Franklin Gutierrez will come off the disabled list and start in center field tonight. Gutierrez has battled illness that recently was diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome.
To make room for him, the Mariners will option right-handed relief pitcher Tom Wilhelmsen to Double-A Jackson, where he will pitch as a starter.
Gutierrez played 11 games on a rehab assignment with the Triple-A Rainiers, including the six straight through Monday as he alternated between playing center field and DH, and batted .280 in 40 at-bats. He reported back to the Mariners on Tuesday, meeting with Wedge and team medical personnel to discuss his status.