Bullpen finally cracks
SAN DIEGO – The Seattle Mariners’ bullpen had put up nothing but zeroes for more than a week, and was brilliant again on Friday night against the Padres.
Until the 10th inning, when the streak was broken and the game was lost. Brian Giles’ one-out, bases-loaded single off Julio Mateo lifted the Padres to a 2-1 victory.
That run broke a streak of 15 1/3 scoreless innings by Mariners relievers, who hadn’t given up a run since the seventh inning against Oakland on June 15. Entering the 10th, a trio of Mariners relievers had held the Padres hitless for 3 1/3 innings since taking over for Gil Meche.
The winning rally started on a one-out double by Padres catcher Rob Bowen, which barely eluded a leaping Ichiro Suzuki in right field. Bowen, who had been bowled over by Richie Sexson trying to score in the ninth but held on to Brian Giles’ throw, moved to third on a single by Mike Cameron, who had homered earlier in the game.
After Ben Johnson walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases, Giles pounced on a 1-0 pitch from Mateo and grounded the ball up the middle to end the game.
The Mariners had seemed on the brink of moving ahead in the 10th, when a walk and single by Willie Bloomquist put runners on first and second with one out. But Padres reliever Scott Linebrink struck out Ichiro on three pitches, then whiffed pinch-hitter Carl Everett.
The Mariners had double-barreled frustration in the ninth inning as they attempted to break the 1-1 tie against Padres relief ace Trevor Hoffman.
With one out and Raul Ibanez on first after a walk, Sexson hit a grounder into the hole at short, headed for left field until the Padres’ Khalil Greene smothered it with a diving stop. Greene fired to second just barely in time to nail Ibanez, the call by second-base umpire Paul Nauert causing Sexson and Ibanez to throw up their arms, and manager Mike Hargrove to come out to argue.
When Hoffman bounced a 1-2 pitch to Kenji Johjima, Sexson took second base. Johjima sliced Hoffman’s next pitch into right field, and Sexson rumbled around third and headed home, where the strong throw by Giles beat him handily.
Sexson attempted to bowl over Bowen, but the catcher held onto the ball.
It shouldn’t have been a big surprise that the game at Petco Park evolved into a pitchers’ duel, even though the pitchers in question have had their issues.
Meche has been wracked by maddening bouts of inconsistency throughout his career.
San Diego starter Jake Peavy, a mainstay of the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic, had struggled to a 4-8 record and 4.81 earned-run average this year.