Mariners rally late, but fall short
SEATTLE – Pitching and defense aren’t exactly a top-secret method to winning, but the Chicago White Sox have it and they’re flaunting it this weekend at Safeco Field.
Saturday night, right-hander Jose Contreras and three relievers limited the Seattle Mariners to a few moments of late hope, then a 4-3 loss to the White Sox.
After trailing 4-0 and looking feeble against Contreras, who’d allowed just Richie Sexson’s second-inning single through six innings, the Mariners made it interesting with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth.
But so did the White Sox, who unfurled their defense by throwing out the potential tying run at the plate, then shutting off the M’s with relievers.
Mariners starter Joel Pineiro (5-9) kept the game close but was no match for Contreras.
Pineiro pitched only one 1-2-3 inning, the fifth, and was finished after allowing seven hits and three runs through six innings.
Jermaine Dye, who went 4 for 4, hit a two-run homer in the second inning, plus two doubles and a single.
For six innings, Contreras was barely hittable.
Sexson led off the bottom of the second with a single to center, then Contreras retired 15 straight hitters.
“He made good pitches, but we didn’t give away many at-bats,” M’s manager Mike Hargrove said. “We waited him out and he got a little tired and we started getting base hits.”
They got three in the seventh, including Greg Dobbs’ two-run single that made the score 4-2.
Jamal Strong, making his first career start in center field, started the bottom of the eighth with a single and the White Sox turned to their bullpen.
Neal Cotts walked Ichiro Suzuki to put runners on first and second, but Willie Bloomquist popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt and Cotts struck out Raul Ibanez.
Burly right-hander Bobby Jenks, formerly of Rathdrum, Idaho, took over against Sexson, and his second pitch measured 102 mph on the stadium radar gun.
On Jenks’ next fastball – which hit 101 – Sexson slapped it into the right-field corner for what could have been a game-tying double. It scored Strong to make the score 4-3 but, Dye threw to second baseman Tadahito Iguchi, who relayed it to catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who tagged out Ichiro to snuff the rally.