Meche resourceful as Mariners slide past best team in baseball

SEATTLE – In recent years, Gil Meche had little chance of winning if he didn’t have command of his fastball or curve.

Now, the Seattle Mariners’ oft-criticized, No. 1 pick from 1996 has a Plan C: A sharp, new slider, thanks to first-year pitching coach Rafael Chaves. And he’s mastered it just in time, during the final year of Meche’s contract.

The Detroit Tigers would have rather hit against the old Meche on Sunday. With little zip on his fastball and no break to his curve, a resourceful Meche relied on the slider to hold baseball’s best team to four hits in seven innings of Seattle’s 3-2 comeback victory that snapped the Mariners’ six-game losing streak.

“In the past, it would have been a disaster, because I wasn’t throwing a slider last year,” Meche said of not having his top two pitches.

Meche (8-4) has become what Seattle has been waiting years for – a consistent, dependable, almost ace-like starter. He hasn’t lost since May 30, eight starts ago. The only time he allowed more than two runs in that span was July 4 against the Los Angeles Angels, when he left in the sixth inning leading 5-2 and saw the bullpen allow all three of his runners to score.

Meche’s status has risen enough that Seattle will restructure its rotation for the second half and give him the first start after the All-Star break, Friday at Toronto.

Meche walked two and struck out eight. He was helped by a two-run homer by seldom-used catcher Rene Rivera, and by Eduardo Perez, who scored the go-ahead run in his first start since coming to Seattle from Cleveland on June 30.

Perez scored with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when Yuniesky Betancourt’s elusive single bounded under the glove of third baseman Brandon Inge, after Nate Robertson walked Perez.

“We’ve still got a lot of baseball left,” manager Mike Hargrove said of his team that is 2 1/2 games behind Oakland and Texas in the AL West despite being three games under .500.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland said the Tigers helped Meche by being “lazy” offensively.

“The break is certainly coming at a good time,” Leyland said. “They are ready for a well-deserved break.”

How deserved? Detroit lost for the sixth time in 27 games but entered the All-Star break with baseball’s best record. The Tigers are in first place at the unofficial midpoint of the season for the first time since 1988.