Mariners Meche up Red Sox
SEATTLE — This one meant more to Gil Meche than his previous complete games.
The right-hander pitched a five-hitter for his second career shutout and Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer to lead the Seattle Mariners over the Boston Red Sox 2-0 Sunday.
“It’s really been a struggle for me this year, but this is the game I’ve been waiting for — for my breaking ball to be there and for the whole game to have my good heater,” Meche said.
Shut out for the third time this season, Boston fell 3 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the A.L. East. The Red Sox have a five-game lead over Anaheim in the wild-card race.
“We’re in a good spot,” Johnny Damon said. “We know the teams in the West are going to start beating each other up. We’re just going to have to play good ball if we want to get to the playoffs. And we know we’re going to play good ball.”
Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 2 for 4 with singles in the first and eighth, boosting his total to 231 hits this season. With 20 games remaining, Suzuki is batting .374 and needs 27 hits to break the 84-year-old major league record of 257 by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns.
Meche (5-6) walked one, struck out four and retired 12 of his final 13 batters in his third career complete game.
“He felt strong. He wanted it,” Seattle manager Bob Melvin said. “I wanted to make sure when we talked after the eighth inning that he wanted to go back out there. And he did. He wanted it bad.”
It was the first time Meche pitched nine innings — his other two complete games were shortened to five innings because of rain. His other shutout was a five-inning one-hitter in a 7-0 victory at Kansas City on June 13, 2000.
“That doesn’t count,” Meche said. “A five-inning rainout doesn’t mean anything to me. I kept waiting for this one. I finally got this one under my belt. I feel like I can get a few more.”
It also carried special significance for Meche because Boston had been streaking, going 30-10 since Aug. 1.
“To shut a team like this down, when they’re in a pennant race and they’ve scored the most runs in baseball, it’s great,” Meche said.