M’s Moyer mesmerizes Mets
SEATTLE – When the offense scores runs by the drip, it’s not easy for a pitcher to pile up victories no matter how well he’s throwing.
Jamie Moyer had as many no-decisions as victories before his start Friday against the New York Mets, despite a month’s worth of solid outings.
Nothing was different Friday, except that the offense backed Moyer and he won for the first time this month, beating the Mets 5-0 at Safeco Field.
Ichiro Suzuki hit a three-run homer in the second inning and finished 3 for 4 to pull his average to .301, and third baseman Jose Lopez, in his first game after being called up from Triple-A Tacoma, went 2 for 4 and drove in a run.
Moyer spread six hits through seven shutout innings, giving the Mariners three starters with six victories this season. Moyer is 6-2, Gil Meche 6-4 and Aaron Sele 6-5.
After going 1-2 with a 7.88 earned run average and three home runs in a difficult month of May, Moyer is 1-0 with a 1.83 ERA and hasn’t allowed a home run in June.
The difference?
“I thought I pitched fairly decent,” Moyer said. “I probably wasn’t getting ahead in the count as much as I am right now.”
Moyer also is throwing a cut fastball, which runs in on right-handed hitters and nullifies their ability to get good wood on the ball. That’s a big reason 16 of his 23 outs were on balls in the air.
Last year, when Moyer went 7-13 and allowed a league-high 44 homers, he tried and often failed to keep right-handers honest inside with his fastball.
“Where he got hurt last year was on the fastballs that ended up running back over the plate,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “The cutter has a tendency to move in on a right-handed hitter. He’s taking away the ability of the hitter to simply dive and take away the outside corner.
“With the strike zone really tightening up on the outside corner, hitters are taking the borderline pitches down and away and forcing him to get a lot of the plate on pitches away. The cutter helps nullify that.”
Moyer said he threw the cutter more often 10 years ago when he pitched for Baltimore.
“It is just something I have gotten back to,” he said. “You have to make adjustments at times. When you can locate it, it becomes a decent pitch. You have to mix and match.”
After David Wright got the Mets’ fourth hit in the third inning, Moyer retired the next 11 hitters before Jose Lopez’s throwing error in the seventh. Chris Woodward followed that with a single to put runners on first and second with nobody out, but Moyer clamped down again. He got Brian Daubach and Ramon Castro on flies to left, then Victor Diaz on a grounder back to the mound.
“Jamie was deceptive and we played right into his hands,” Mets manager Willie Randolph said. “He was hitting all the spots and changing speeds. Going in, I knew it could end up like this. I’ve seen it many times. Jamie can make a good team look bad.”
Still, Moyer needed help.
The offense gave Moyer early help when Ichiro hit a 2-0 pitch from Mets starter Kazuhisa Ishii into the right-field seats for a 3-0 lead in the second inning.
Ichiro is 6 for 14 in the three games since he got his 1,000th hit on Tuesday and seems to be finding his stroke again.
Lopez doubled to drive in another run in the fifth and Ichiro brought home the Mariners’ last run in the seventh with a bad-hop single that bounced over first baseman Brian Daubach’s head.
Moyer weakened in the eighth when he loaded the bases with two outs, but Jeff Nelson struck out Marlon Anderson to end that threat, then finished the Mets in the ninth for his first save of the season.