Mariners execute doubleheader sweep
SEATTLE – As a long day wandered into night, Ichiro Suzuki went where no Ichiro had ever gone before.
Capping a doubleheader sweep of Kansas City – a pair of games that required 21 innings and a combined 6 hours and 37 minutes – the Seattle Mariners right fielder collected his 50th hit in the month of August.
Research indicates no major league player has ever had three months in any season with as many as 50 hits until now, and not surprisingly, No. 50 on Saturday led to the winning run in the nightcap.
On a day when rookie pitchers won both games, Matt Thornton was the victor in Game 1, 9-7, and Cha Seung Baek the winner in Game 2, 5-3. And both times, the Mariners gave up sizeable leads to the Royals and then reeled them back in.
“We’ve had to come from behind a lot this year,” manager Bob Melvin said.
“It’s nothing new.”
With a paid crowd of 41,362 on hand to watch the first double-dip in Safeco Field history, there were dramatics and mind-numbing mistakes, marvelous pitching and an injury.
Jolbert Cabrera doubled home Bret Boone in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the second game into extra innings and Randy Winn hit a walk-off home run in the 12th to win it.
The winner of Game 2, rookie right-hander Baek, wasn’t even on the roster when the doubleheader began.
And then there was Ichiro.
With a hit in the first game, three more in the second, he now has 206 hits this season with 33 games left to play – on pace to break the all-time major league single season hits record of 257 set by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns in 1920. He also bettered 50 hits in May and July.
“That’s too far away to think about,” Ichiro said.
OK, how about his third 50-hit month of the season? Ichiro grinned.
“Every record brings a different feeling,” he said, “but the ones that display the way I play the game are the most enjoyable. To get many hits, that is my game – but I could not imagine 50 hits in a month.”
Now, he can.
He can also say he’s stolen at least 30 bases in each of his four major league seasons – he swiped No. 30 in Game 2, and worked his way around to score.
“It’s ridiculous, but 50 hits has become the normal month for him,” Melvin said, and when the room grew quiet he laughed. “I’m kidding.”
Melvin could laugh because his team had taken both games in a long day of baseball, pulling itself to the 49-win level as it tries to avoid losing 100 times this season.
If you’d said on opening day that the Mariners would play a double-header on Aug. 28, would you have believed that rookies Clint Nageotte and Bobby Madritsch would be the two starters, or that Thornton and Baek would win the games in relief?
None of the four was on the team in April.
Winn was, although he admits it seems a long, long time ago.
“It’s been a season none of us expected and no one here has been happy with,” Winn said. “But maybe we can finish strong, get that winning feeling back in this clubhouse. That would mean something.”
For the first time since May, the Mariners will have at least 10 wins in a month – they’re 10-16 in August. They got their ninth and 10th wins against the only team in the American League with a worse record, but both games could have gone either way.
Down 4-0 in the first game, Seattle got back into the game with a long Bucky Jacobsen home run, then an opposite-field two-run double by Jacobsen a few innings later.
Down 3-0 after the first inning in the nightcap, Madritsch shut the Royals out over the next six innings and Seattle came back with one one-run rally at a time to finally tie.
“It was a very long day,” Ichiro said. “Long games, long questions from you guys. I want to go home and sleep.”
After talking to Winn about his game-winning home run, someone asked if he’d realized Ichiro had preceded it with his 50th hit of August. Winn laughed.
“He’s hard to keep up with, he’s always on base,” Winn said. “What is this, the 10th month this year he’s had 50 hits?”
No. Just closer to it than any player apparently ever has been.
Mariners place RHP Nageotte on DL
Seattle placed right-hander Clint Nageotte on the 15-day disabled list after Saturday’s first game against Kansas City.