Saarloos cuts loose to stifle M’s in shutout

SEATTLE – All this time, it seemed the root of the Seattle Mariners’ problems against the Oakland A’s was a couple of guys named Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson.

Those two have moved on to other teams, leaving the A’s to wallow in the basement of the American League West Division and, after Thursday, to continue their dominance of the Mariners.

The A’s beat the Mariners 5-0 and unveiled the apparent heir apparent to Oakland’s pitching greatness – at least for one day – in Kirk Saarloos. He’s a junk-throwing right-hander who added something to his repertoire at Safeco Field: the strikeout.

Saarloos fanned seven Mariners and got most of the rest to flail at his off-speed pitches in a four-hit complete game. Jeremy Reed got two hits, Adrian Beltre and Pat Borders the others, and the Mariners didn’t advance a runner past second base.

Seven strikeouts aren’t rare to the Mariners, but they are to Saarloos. He entered the game with 14 strikeouts in 66 1/3 innings this season, none in his previous three games.

Saarloos struck out Richie Sexson four times, including a ninth-inning punchout that gave Sexson the major league lead with 82 whiffs.

“It was just one of those days,” said the 26-year-old Saarloos, whose wife, Kristen, is a graduate of Issaquah High School. About 30 family and friends attended the game.

Raul Ibanez struck out twice and Ichiro Suzuki went 0 for 4 and extended his hitless streak to 10 at-bats, dropping his average to .294.

“It’s tough to win when you get only four hits,” Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said.

It’s also tough to win when the opponent gets 16, which the A’s did off Mariners starting pitcher Ryan Franklin and reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

In praising Saarloos, Hargrove also laid out what ailed his pitching.

“He threw strikes and stayed ahead of our hitters, and we didn’t throw strikes and pitched behind their hitters,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove wouldn’t criticize his hitters’ approach, saying Saarloos simply was too good with a sinker and changeup that he threw for strikes.

“When you throw strikes, hitters will swing more often,” Hargrove said. “At some point, you have to give credit to the other guy for pitching a good game. Were we a little anxious? We tried to be patient and tired to get him to bring the ball up, but it just didn’t work.”

Franklin, coming off his best game of the year in a 4-1 victory over the New York Mets, labored through one of his worst this season, allowing 11 hits and all five A’s runs. He pitched with runners on base every inning he worked and the A’s, after scoring single runs in the third and fifth inning, put him away with three in the seventh.

“You’re not going to go out every time and put the ball where you want it,” said Franklin (3-9). “You’ve got to battle, and today was a battle.”

The A’s scored in drips – a run in the third on Bobby Kielty’s sacrifice fly and one in the fifth when the M’s surrendered a run to get a double play – before knocking Franklin from the game in the seventh.

Franklin gave up three hits in that inning, including Scott Hatteberg’s RBI double and Dan Johnson’s run-scoring single, before Hargrove pulled him.

Hasegawa gave up two more hits, including Nick Swisher’s RBI single for a 5-0 A’s lead, before getting the final out.

The A’s won three of the four games at Safeco Field and lead the season series against the Mariners 6-3.