Matthews’ home run drops M’s
SEATTLE – Joel Pineiro, the latest Seattle Mariners pitcher to be lashed by the Texas Rangers, has this news flash.
“It’s not their bats,” Pineiro said Saturday after a 6-5 loss at Safeco Field. “It’s my pitching.”
There was a lot of that going around.
Pineiro blamed himself for the two home runs he allowed – a three-run blast by Michael Young in the second inning and a solo homer by David Dellucci in the fourth – and reliever J.J. Putz had to live with the one pitch that led to the Mariners’ seventh straight loss.
Putz, who had pitched 9 2/3 straight scoreless innings, tried to jam Gary Matthews Jr. with an inside fastball and missed his spot. Matthews didn’t, crushing a line drive over the right-field wall with two outs in the ninth inning for the game-winning homer.
“In that situation, I knew better than to make a mistake in,” said Putz, who has allowed three game-winning homers this season. “You can’t afford to miss right there, and he hit it good.”
So what do we have here, a case of good Rangers hitting or poor Mariners pitching?
Pineiro says the Rangers deserve credit – after all, they lead the major leagues with 133 homers – but he accepts most of the blame.
“If I make my pitches where I want to, I should be OK,” said Pineiro, whose no-decision left him 2-4. “When I miss the location and get behind in the count and make a mistake, they’re supposed to hit it far.”
Pineiro, winless since April 26, has been a victim of his inconsistency. He’ll struggle for a while, as he did in the first and second innings when the Rangers took a 4-1 lead, but will rebound with a sound inning or two.
Pineiro had retired six of seven Rangers before Dellucci’s homer in the fourth made it a 5-3 game.
“He would throw good one inning and not so good the next inning,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “You can’t pitch up in the strike zone against major league hitters, much less the Rangers’ hitters, and not end up paying for it eventually. We did.”
The Mariners also came back.
Against Rangers left-hander C.J. Wilson, who made his third career major league start, they scored in the first inning on Raul Ibanez’s bases-loaded walk and three times in the third on Randy Winn’s RBI double and Adrian Beltre’s two-run homer.
Beltre also homered in the fifth to tie the score at 5.
“The last two or three weeks, he’s been more comfortable at the plate,” Hargrove said. “Hopefully today is a springboard for what we’ll see the rest of the year from him.”
Beltre finished 3 for 4 and has raised his average 20 points, to .264, since June 18.
“Adrian’s the type of offensive player who can carry a ballclub,” Hargrove said. “There aren’t many of those around, but every player who can carry a club needs help.”
It didn’t come from many other spots in the lineup.
Ichiro Suzuki, breaking from a June slump, got two hits and Winn collected the other.
The Mariners knocked Wilson from the game in the third inning, but right-hander John Wasdin gave up two hits and two runs over the next 4 2/3 .
Pineiro kicked himself for another difficult start.
“Five innings, five runs. I’m in a pitcher’s funk right now and I’ve got to do something to get out of it,” he said. “I wish I knew why so I could go out there and fix it. Nothing’s clicking right now.”
The Mariners lost their 14th one-run decision.
“It seems like when things are going this way,” Boone said, “you come up one short.”