Mariners lose another late lead as A’s rally in ninth
OAKLAND – Eddie Guardado is one of the best closers in the game, a weapon any contending team would love to have - but the Seattle Mariners can’t use him. They can’t get a lead to the ninth inning, which begs the question, what good is a closer with nothing to close?
The Mariners got a lead to the eighth inning again Wednesday and watched it disappear, then saw a ninth-inning rally produce Oakland’s 3-2 victory — Seattle’s 15th consecutive road loss.
Wasted was one of Jamie Moyer’s finest games of the season.
Rendered meaningless was another massive home run by Bucky Jacobsen.
And in the eighth inning, as Shigetoshi Hasegawa tried to get three outs and get the game to Guardado, Guardado was letting the rush of adrenaline flow through him …
Only to find he didn’t need it.
“Am I frustrated? We’re all frustrated,” Guardado said. “If you’d told me in spring training I’d have 23 save opportunities going into August, I’d have thought you were crazy.
“I thought we were going to the World Series. I really did.”
Three days before the July 31 trading deadline, would Guardado consider asking Seattle to trade him to a team that might still contend for a World Series?
“No,” Guardado said. “That would be selfish. I’m not the only one on this team who wants to win, all of us want to win. It would be selfish for me to say ‘Get me out of here’ because we’re losing.”
So Guardado wants to stick it out, stay with a Mariners team that set a franchise record for consecutive road losses and has nearly driven its manager out of his mind.
“How many times have we seen that in the eighth inning?” Melvin said after Oakland homered to tie the game. “We can’t just give up a double, it has to be a home run. We’ve got to find a way to get through the eighth and get to Eddie.
“We’ve shuffled everyone we’ve got through that role. I don’t know what to do.”
Moyer pitched seven magnificent innings, striking out a season high nine batters, allowing just one run on a solo homer by Marco Scutaro. But after seven, he’d thrown 105 pitches.
“He gave us all he had,” Melvin said. “He was done.”
Melvin went to Hasegawa, the most experienced setup man in the bullpen.
“You look at Shiggy a year ago, he had what - a 0.88 earned run average at this time last season?” Bret Boone asked. “I can’t get on our relievers. If they’ve underachieved, so have all the hitters. We’re all frustrated.”
Hasegawa entered leading, 2-1, and got No. 9 hitter Scutaro on a comebacker. Then he worked the count full to outfielder Eric Byrnes, and left a fastball too high.
“He didn’t just hang it,” Melvin said. “It was chest high.”
Only for a moment — then it was a line drive home run over the leftfield fence to tie the game.
For Hasegawa, it was the fifth home run allowed this season, and three of those have come in the eighth inning. Two of those homers, and a third allowed in the seventh inning, have lost Seattle leads.
“We’ve been in position to win so many games and then haven’t won them,” Melvin said. “The eighth inning has been our Achilles’ heel.”
On offense and defense.
Boone led off the top of the eighth with a double and took third base on Byrnes’ error. Jacobsen popped out to shallow center field and Raul Ibañez grounded sharply back to the mound.
On the Ibañez grounder, Boone took off for the plate — told to break on contact — and was out easily. Scott Spiezio struck out and the threat was over.
Which was hardly out of character.
Seattle’s two runs came when Jacobsen hit a home run so hard and far that Byrnes — at the center field wall — actually had to duck when the baseball rebounded off the stands far above him.
The second run?
Ichiro, who pushed his hitting streak to 20 consecutive games, scored on a Mark Mulder wild pitch in the third inning.
And that was the Seattle offense.