Clemens starts Astros on way past Mariners

SEATTLE — Inning after inning Tuesday night, the Seattle Mariners worked on Roger Clemens like he had done to them for 20 years.

They milked Clemens for walks. They hit foul balls that drove up his pitch count. They managed three hits and five walks and surrounded him with baserunners through 6 2/3 innings.

But, like so many other times since Clemens first faced the Mariners in 1984, he beat them.

For lack of a successful sacrifice bunt by the Mariners and a play at the plate when the ball somehow squirted from Dan Wilson’s glove, the Houston Astros scored in seventh inning in a 1-0 victory at Safeco Field.

Clemens, 9-0 this season, is 23-14 in his career over the Mariners.

This was their best, and probably last, opportunity to beat him and they couldn’t, despite Joel Pineiro’s best start of the season and a defense that made spectacular plays behind him.

Pineiro gave up three hits and three walks in eight innings, but fell to 1-8.

“It’s too bad because Joel pitched every bit as good as Clemens did,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We had more opportunities than they did. We couldn’t come through when we had to.

“We didn’t execute. With guys on third and less than two outs – once with nobody out – and we just didn’t execute. That’s what decided the game.”

The Mariners put their leadoff runner on base in the second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

No scoring opportunity started so grandly and ended with such disappointment as the bottom of the eighth, when John Olerud led off with a triple.

Against Astros reliever Brad Lidge, Olerud hit a liner up the middle that center fielder Craig Biggio misjudged. Biggio broke in, then raced back and couldn’t get to the ball, which rolled slowly to the wall as Olerud, one of the slowest runners on the team, reached third.

Willie Bloomquist pinch-ran for Olerud, but he never got off the bag as Bret Boone popped out to shallow right field, Scott Spiezio struck out and pinch-hitter Dave Hansen struck out.

Two other times the Mariners tried to push runners into scoring position with bunt attempts, and they popped out both times. Successful sacrifices may have produced runs both times, because the Mariners followed with hits.

Dan Wilson did it in the fifth, popping out in foul territory, Rich Aurilia stuck on first base. Clemens later walked the bases loaded with two outs before he got Edgar Martinez on a fly to right field.

Hiram Bocachica popped up another bunt in the ninth after Wilson led off with a single off closer Octavio Dotel. Randy Winn followed with a two-out single to right field, but Dotel struck out Edgar Martinez to end the game.

It ended then only because of a ball that somehow broke away from Wilson’s grasp in the seventh when the Astros scored the game’s only run.

Jeff Bagwell led off with a single and Jeff Kent walked before Lance Berkman hit a fly to deep center that allowed both runners to advance.

Morgan Ensberg then hit a fly to shallow left field, Randy Winn caught it on the run and threw on the fly to Wilson at the plate as Bagwell charged home. Wilson lunged to make the tag, Bagwell made contact with his hand and the ball squirted away.