Meche still baffles M’s in 8-6 loss

KANSAS CITY – Still trying to find out just how good Gil Meche can be, the Seattle Mariners got another example Tuesday of just how bad he can be.

Against a Kansas City team that didn’t score a run in three of its previous four games, Meche was beaten by a barrage of two-out runs in Seattle’s 8–6 loss to the Royals – a game that left his manager intentionally speechless.

Someone asked Mike Hargrove if Meche’s outing left him shaking his head. “No comment,” Hargrove said.

“I might go with that one, too,” joked catcher Pat Borders. “This kid is 26 years old and has a No. 1 starter’s arm. He’s still young to be a refined pitcher, but he’ll get there. Once he knows himself, once it all clicks, he will be a No. 1 starter. You see streaks of it now …”

But only streaks.

Seattle’s only eight-game winner this season, Meche has made 17 starts and been given 82 runs by the Mariners offense – one shy of the staff leader, Jamie Moyer.

He’s lost his last two games in the manner of a pitcher who hasn’t quite figured it out.

“I had great stuff, I felt as good as I’ve felt in a long time, but I didn’t make good pitches,” Meche said. “I felt like I could blow my fastball by anybody, and that’s how I got the first two outs of the second inning.”

After an 11-pitch first inning, Meche held a 1-0 lead when Adrian Beltre hit his ninth home run.

What happened next, no one – from Hargrove to Borders to Meche – could fathom.

“Eleven pitches in the first inning, 60 in the next two,” Hargrove said. “It was like a light switch went off with two outs in the second inning. The game got away from him.”

Matt Stairs singled, but Meche struck out the next two Royals. Angel Berroa singled. Shane Costa singled, scoring Stairs and tying the game – but bringing up the No. 9 hitter in the Royals lineup, Alberto Castillo.

Meche walked Castillo.

“He walked a .205 hitter to get to a .285 hitter,” Hargrove said.

Bryan Price was sent to the mound to calm down Meche, remind him not to overthrow. Meche gave up a two-run single to David DeJesus – and the Royals were ahead for good.

“I didn’t hold that team to a respectable score. I gave up too many runs,” Meche said. “I’d get ahead of the hitters, then get deep into the count because I couldn’t put them away. That’s not acceptable – to me or anyone else.

“I’ve got to get back to pitching. I’m just seeing the signs and throwing the ball, I’m not thinking.”

After a four–run second inning, the Royals came back with two more runs in the third inning off Meche, both unearned because Borders muffed a swinging bunt by Mike Sweeney.

“I suck,” Borders said. “Write that.”

Still, Meche got the next two Royals out and was in position to end the inning when he walked Mark Teahen, then gave up a triple to Berroa that made it 6-1.

The Mariners tried to come back, using a 14-hit attack to close the gap.

Richie Sexson drove home a run in the fifth with a two-out single, and in the sixth, Seattle scored three times – twice on the second of three Willie Bloomquist singles.

That got the Mariners back to within two at 7-5.

Reliever Matt Thornton then outdid Meche. He promptly walked the No. 8 and No. 9 hitters in the Kansas City lineup, setting up the Royals final run.

“Look for the positive, we came back again tonight,” Bloomquist said.

Price said it was a matter of going into the game with a plan, then getting away from it in the second inning and never getting back.

“Gil spends too much time trying to throw the perfect pitch,” Price said. “He had an easy first inning, then in crunch time with guys on base, he tried to elevate his effort and didn’t have to. What he was doing was fine until he tried to do more than that.”

Hargrove is going to have a chat with Meche today, more than likely the same kind of talk managers Lou Piniella and Bob Melvin had with Meche.

Hargrove doesn’t know how good Meche can be.

What he does know is how bad he can be.