Defense rests in Mariners’ loss
BALTIMORE – Heaven knows they haven’t had much to cling to this season, but the Seattle Mariners at least had their defense.
No, they don’t have much of an offense this year.
No, their pitching isn’t in the top half of the American League.
Seattle entered its 107th game of the season, however, tied for second in fielding percentage in the league – and then turned two errors into the biggest part of a 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Gil Meche started and pitched well enough, delayed for 57 minutes by a thunderstorm in the second inning of a scoreless game. He sat and sat, warmed up and took the mound again.
On the first play after that delay, Karim Garcia hit a two-out grounder to shortstop Jose Lopez with a man on second base. Lopez made a fine diving stop, jumped up and threw the ball off the stands behind first base, and the Orioles were ahead 1-0.
“Gil threw well,” said Seattle manager Bob Melvin. “His velocity crept up the longer he was out there and he had better command. He kept us in the game.”
Baltimore punched home two more runs on a two-out, two-run single by Brian Roberts in the fourth, and Seattle was down, 3-0.
“I gave up a couple of hits that hurt on my four-seam fastball, and they didn’t quite hit them hard enough to get to our outfielders,” Meche said. “I wanted to stay out there, but after six innings and that hour delay, I’d thrown 108 pitches.
“They made the right decision.”
Seattle’s Shigetoshi Hasegawa relieved to start the seventh and walked two men with one out, then got a grounder to third base and Willie Bloomquist.
“It’s a double play; we’re out of the inning,” Bloomquist said. “I just messed up.”
Bloomquist wanted to field the ball, step on third and throw to first. As the ball got to him, he didn’t field it cleanly and got neither out, and the bases were loaded.
With Rafael Palmeiro coming up, Melvin went to left-handed specialist Mike Myers. Palmeiro pulled a pitch down the right-field line for a two-run single – and this one was gone.
“There’s no sense analyzing it, I just didn’t make the play,” Bloomquist said, shaking his head. “I never think I’m going to boot a ball, but I did. If not, we’re still playing.”
“It sucks to lose, and the losses are mounting up for all of us,” Myers said.
They are mounting up at a formidable pace – six in a row now for the Mariners, who today could produce one of the strangest statistics in baseball history.
If the Mariners lose and Ichiro Suzuki goes 3 for 4, Ichiro’s batting average and Seattle’s winning percentage will almost be identical. Ichiro would be batting .360, and that winning percentage would be .361.
It was Ichiro’s sixth-inning triple that ignited the Mariners’ one rally of the night, and Randy Winn followed that with a two-run home run.
Then defense stuck its head into the game.
Edgar Martinez walked, Bucky Jacobsen singled and Raul Ibañez looped a line drive into left center field – only to have center fielder Jerry Hairston make a marvelous diving catch.
“Enormous play,” Melvin said. “If that drops in, we have a run in, no one out, runners at first and third base.”
With two outs, the Mariners loaded the bases and Miguel Olivo tied the game by drawing a walk. That brought up Bloomquist – who lined the ball up the middle, only to have Buddy Groom make a leaping catch on the mound.
“We’ve found a lot of ways to lose games this year,” Bloomquist said. “I just contributed another one to the list.”
Despite falling to 1-9 on this trip, the Mariners did break an odd little streak. It had been one month exactly since the Seattle pitching staff had worked a game without allowing a homer.
This time, no homers – and no win.
At 29 games worse than .500 (39-68), the Mariners are no longer in the same zip code as the rest of the American League West. They haven’t been worse since 1988.
That year, they lost 93 games and had a .422 winning percentage. This season, the Mariners are on pace to lose 103 games.