Ancient Mariner carries day
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Of all the games Pat Borders has played over all the years, he may remember Saturday night better than most.
After all, it isn’t every day a 42-year-old gets to help his pitcher, Aaron Sele, to a third straight superb start and, atop that, hits a decisive, late-inning home run.
With Borders possibly starting his own run behind the plate for a Seattle club in deep need at the position, the Mariners stopped a four-loss spin with a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and beat a left-handed starter doing it.
“I will remember this game more than most, but not just for the game,” said Borders, the Mariners’ own version of immortal Crash Davis. “I’ll remember it because I think the kids will remember it.”
The whole family was in the Tropicana Dome on Saturday night – wife Kathy and, as only Borders would put it, “six and 7/9ths kids – we’re almost there with No. 7. Homers are always fun, but especially with the kids watching.”
Mariners manager Mike Hargrove did not blink an eye when asked if Borders had surprised him.
“I learned a long time ago nothing he does is surprising,” Hargrove said. “He’s just short of amazing.”
With Borders adding veteran stability, Hargrove’s club responded to his tongue-lashing after Friday’s lazy loss.
“I was proud of them, the way they responded,” Hargrove said. “They had better focus, and that’s what I was looking for.”
Even though Borders’ first-pitch fastball shot off Tampa Bay starter Casey Fossum wound up the deciding blow, it is debatable whether it ranked first in his contributions to the win.
His work with Sele, who came through with a solid effort against a good-hitting Rays team in a place it hits best, was no less essential.
“Anytime Pat is behind the plate, with 20 years of big-league experience,” Sele said, “it has to help. And then, of course, there was the home run.”
Sele, who was working on a shutout string of 15 innings until Aubrey Huff’s solo homer in the fourth, has turned around 180 degrees from the wreck that allowed seven runs in two-plus innings May 10 in Yankee Stadium.
Borders’ contribution on Saturday was to stay away from Sele’s curveball, usually his out pitch, through the early innings.
“When you can, you try to hide a pitch from hitters the first time through,” Borders said. “You try to save something for their next time.”
The Mariners got two fair-to-huge breaks to get a 2-0 edge in the third, a rally that started on one-out singles by Ichiro and Randy Winn. The first hit was a ground ball up the middle, which Tampa Bay’s infield had left open, and the other a perfect hit-and-run liner through the left side, with shortstop Julio Lugo leaving that spot to cover the bag with Ichiro breaking on the pitch.
But those weren’t the breaks.
The first of those came when plate umpire Chad Fairchild ruled Fossum had hit Adrian Beltre on the foot. Replays showed the ball bounced between Beltre’s feet. That loaded the bases for Richie Sexson.
The second break came when Sexson hit a hard bouncer to the left of third baseman Alex Gonzalez.
With Gonzalez apparently trying to be quick for a double play, the ball tipped off the end of his glove and into short left field. Ichiro scored on the grounder, and Winn on the error.
Eddie Guardado had a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save.