Freddy’s return unpleasant

SEATTLE – Freddy Garcia already has delivered 11 victories and more than 180 innings of workhorse pitching to the Chicago White Sox this season. On Sunday, he provided a glimpse at what the Seattle Mariners saw plenty of before they traded him last season.

His focus jarred by (a) his first game back at Safeco Field, (b) the Mariners’ aggressive approach at the plate and on the bases, or (c) simply poor pitching, Garcia labored through 4 1/3 innings Sunday and the Mariners pounded him.

Whatever the reason, the M’s beat the White Sox 9-2, leaving Garcia 0-3 this season against his former team. Take away the games against the Mariners, Garcia would be 11-3.

“I can’t figure that out,” said Dave Hansen, who hit a 417-foot home run off Garcia in the fifth inning, when the Mariner scored three times and chased him in his shortest outing this season.

The Mariners swung early in the count and whacked 11 hits off Garcia, and they ran the bases as aggressively as they have all season. Willie Bloomquist stole a base and Jeremy Reed stole two, and the M’s frequently took the extra base going from first to third and second to home.

“Offense, defense, baserunning. If you can get into a pitcher’s head, move up a base when you’re not expected to, good things can happen,” Bloomquist said.

In other news, Jamie Moyer was himself. Again.

He gave up six hits in seven innings and ran his record to 11-5 with a 4.22 earned run average this season. He’s 8-0, 2.74 this season at Safeco Field and, when the Mariners gave him a four-run lead after two innings, he remained perfect with such a lead. Moyer is 123-0 in his career when he’s had a lead of at least four runs.

“That’s a number I don’t need to know,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “I’m not going to talk about it because the next time he’ll be 123-1.”

Hargrove did address the reason Moyer hasn’t lost at Safeco Field.

“Being as intelligent about how to get hitters out as Jamie is, he’s pretty good no matter what park he pitches in,” Hargrove said. “But this park has the added plus of being a big ballpark, and pitchers get away with more mistakes here.”

Not even a first-inning barrel-roll on the first play of the game could disrupt Moyer, although it stunned him.

Leadoff hitter Pablo Ozuna pushed a bunt toward first baseman Richie Sexson, but the swift Ozuna beat Moyer to the base, where he’d taken Sexson’s throw. As Ozuna slid head-first over the bag, Moyer caught him in the back with a knee and went tumbling. He spent a few minutes on his knees.

“I was catching my breath and wondering what had happened,” Moyer said.

Back on the mound, Moyer endured a wobbly first inning when Paul Konerko’s double drove home Ozuna. Then he got tough.

Moyer retired the White Sox in order in the second and third innings, gave up Aaron Rowand’s RBI triple in the fourth, then retired 12 of the next 13 hitters before leaving the game after seven innings.

Garcia, meanwhile, didn’t have it from his first pitch.

Ichiro Suzuki lashed a first-pitch double and Willie Bloomquist an RBI single. Bloomquist then stole second and scored when Garcia threw two wild pitches.

The Mariners did their best to rattle Garcia with speed, and they succeeded. Jeremy Reed stole second and third after he walked with one out in the second, and he scored on Yorvit Torrealba’s double. Suzuki and Hansen each hit RBI singles for a 5-1 lead after two innings.

“If he was (distracted), then that’s what good baserunning can do,” Bloomquist said. “You can open up a different facet of the game.”

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen didn’t buy that theory.

“The kid loved Seattle and he did a good job for them,” Guillen said. “It had nothing to do with emotion. He just got his butt kicked.”

Hansen did that better than any other Mariner when he homered in the fifth inning.

He entered the game in the second inning after Sexson experienced blurred vision in his right eye during his first at-bat against Garcia. In the fifth, Garcia left a fastball over the middle of the plate and Hansen drove it well over the right-field fence, sparking a three-run inning that turned a 5-2 Mariners lead to 8-2.

“I was as surprised as anybody else,” Hansen said. “I was trying to hit the ball up the middle.”

Adrian Beltre followed with a single and pinch-runner Yuniesky Betancourt – replacing Beltre, who suffered a bruised right kneecap sliding back into first base – scored on Jeremy Reed’s single.

“There were certain things they were allowing us to do and we tried to take advantage of it,” Hargrove said. “The secret to beating Garcia was that Freddy had poor location with his pitches and we were able to put the ball in play and get it by people. We didn’t see Freddy Garcia at his best.”