Moyer stymies Expos
SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners’ struggling offense gave Jamie Moyer an early lead, and the 41-year-old lefty made sure three runs were more than enough.
Moyer pitched seven shutout innings and Hiram Bocachica hit his first homer in the majors in two seasons, leading Seattle to a 3-0 victory over the Montreal Expos on Saturday night.
Moyer (5-2) allowed just six hits in winning his fourth consecutive decision. He struck out a season-high seven and walked one, and has a 1.60 ERA in his last five starts.
The Mariners are struggling to score runs, but they staked Moyer to a 3-0 lead after three innings.
“It’s nice to see we can go out early and score some runs,” said Moyer, who hasn’t lost in nine starts since April 22.
“But I try to separate my job from their job,” he said. “What they did doesn’t stand out if I don’t go out and put up zeros.”
Moyer, an All-Star for the first time last season when he won a career-high 21 games, said he got his seven strikeouts against the Expos because they hadn’t faced him before.
“I think some of it’s just because they’re not familiar with me,” he said. “I made some decent pitches, but you never know what you’re going to run into in interleague play.”
Mariners catcher Dan Wilson said Moyer excelled with his versatility against Montreal.
“He had great stuff,” Wilson said. “I don’t think it was vintage with changeup after changeup. I think he really mixed up his pitches tonight. He threw a lot of different kinds of pitches.”
Ron Villone and Shigetoshi Hasegawa pitched the eighth, and Eddie Guardado threw a scoreless ninth for his 11th save to complete Seattle’s second consecutive shutout.
In an effort to jump-start the offense, Seattle manager Bob Melvin moved Ichiro Suzuki from the leadoff spot to No. 3 in the lineup. He went 1 for 3 with a walk and scored a run.
Although the Mariners only had five hits, Ichiro will be back in the No. 3 spot in the lineup on Sunday, Melvin said.
“I think he gave us a little energy early,” Melvin said of Ichiro. “We’ll probably look at something pretty similar tomorrow.”
Claudio Vargas (4-4) pitched 31/3 innings and gave up three runs – two earned – on four hits and three walks, with three strikeouts.
Moyer beat Montreal for the first time since April 8, 1988, when he pitched for the Chicago Cubs. He last faced the Expos in 1991 with St. Louis.
Mariners starters have pitched 20 scoreless innings, including Friday night’s 1-0 victory. The last time the Mariners had two consecutive shutouts was Sept. 18-19, 2001, against Anaheim.
Orlando Cabrera and Jose Vidro each had three hits for Montreal, which was shut out for the 10th time this season, most in the majors. The Expos haven’t scored in their last 18 innings.
The frustrated Expos had their first player ejected this season when Brad Wilkerson was thrown out by plate umpire Charlie Reliford for arguing too strongly after being called out on strikes in the seventh. Teammate Carl Everett, on the disabled list, was ejected for arguing from the bench.
Expos manager Frank Robinson said he thought Reliford was trying to show up Wilkerson.
“Wilkerson just got upset,” Robinson said. “I didn’t think the first pitch to him was a strike. He didn’t think it was a strike and the last one was kind of a ‘I’ll show you.’ It was a terrible pitch and Wilkerson reacted to it.”
Seattle scored a run in each of the first three innings. Dave Hansen had an RBI single in the first, Bocachica hit his first homer since 2002 – when he was with Detroit – in the second, and John Olerud had a sacrifice fly in the third.
Seattle’s run in the third was unearned because of center fielder Endy Chavez’s two-base throwing error that allowed Ichiro, who singled, to go to third after Chavez caught Bret Boone’s flyball. Ichiro then scored on Olerud’s sacrifice fly.
Notes
Ichiro Suzuki batted third for the Mariners from June 2-4, 2002, under former manager Lou Piniella and went 8 for 14. He was the fifth No. 3 hitter for the Mariners this season. The others were Edgar Martinez, Scott Spiezio, Bret Boone and John Olerud. … Randy Winn became the Mariners’ only other leadoff hitter this season.