M’s streak continues
SEATTLE – Miguel Batista scrambled to match Roy Halladay long enough for Seattle’s offense to finally solve the Toronto ace.
Batista carefully pitched into the seventh inning, Ben Broussard tied a career-high with four hits and the Mariners beat the Blue Jays 8-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight win.
It’s Seattle longest win streak since a nine-game surge from May 27 to June 5, 2003. The Mariners improved to 9-2 on their current 12-game home-stand.
“His bad nights, for anyone else in the league, is a good night. Roy is an amazing pitcher,” said Batista, a former teammate of Halladay’s in Toronto during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. “For the guys to score three runs off him, that’s a good night.”
Halladay (9-3) wasn’t battered around, but gave up 10 hits – four in the sixth inning alone, when Seattle took the lead for good. The former Cy Young winner allowed three runs and struck out three, losing for the first time since May 10 against Boston. He had been 5-0 in his last six starts.
“They make you work,” Halladay said of Seattle’s lineup. “They get a little bit of a lead and that makes it tough.”
Tied at 1 in the sixth, Broussard lined a one-out single and advanced to second on Kenji Johjima’s groundout. Broussard then scored on Adrian Beltre’s single to center, and after Beltre moved up on a wild pitch, Yuniesky Betancourt hit an RBI single to left.
Seattle added five more in the seventh off Toronto’s bullpen, sending nine batters to the plate. Broussard scored a pair on his fourth single – a flare over the drawn-in infield. It was his seventh career four-hit game.
Mostly used as a pinch-hitter this season, Broussard has received more regular at-bats during Seattle’s current homestand because of an injury to Raul Ibanez. Broussard has driven in eight runs in his last six games.
“I think it’s taught me a lot about my swing. Sometimes you don’t feel good and you’ve got to get in there and find a way,” Broussard said. “It’s been nice to get some (at-bats) and some consistent playing time.”
Batista (8-6) left with one-out in the seventh after giving up a single to pinch-hitter Howie Clark and walking Alex Rios on four pitches. It was his fifth walk and almost half of Batista’s 116 pitches were balls.
Sean Green ended the threat with an inning-ending double play from Gregg Zaun.
“We worked Batista pretty good,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “He just didn’t buckle.”
Seattle first got to Halladay in the fifth. Betancourt snapped a 0-for-14 slump with a leadoff single, and went to second on Willie Bloomquist’s sacrifice bunt. Ichiro then chopped Halladay’s pitch off the plate about 10 feet up the first base line. Halladay fielded the ball instead of letting it land and potentially roll foul, and Ichiro reached first and Betancourt advanced to third.
Betancourt then scored on Jose Vidro’s one-out, broken-bat sacrifice fly to shallow left, beating Adam Lind’s throw to the plate.
“We ran the bases aggressively, ran them well and forced some issues,” Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said.
Toronto got even in the sixth without a hit. Vernon Wells walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch and went to third on Troy Glaus’ fly out down the right field line.
Instead of walking Frank Thomas and setting up a double play, Batista pitched to the slugger. Thomas hit a fly ball to left-center that Ichiro raced over to catch. Wells tagged and kicked the ball from Johjima’s glove as he slid across the plate.
Notes
Seattle second baseman Jose Lopez was a late scratch from the lineup with back spasms. … Halladay failed to complete at least seven innings for just the second time in his last seven starts. … Seattle lefty Horacio Ramirez made his first rehab start at Triple-A Tacoma, pitching four innings and giving up six hits and six runs against Salt Lake.
Minor league report
If the scoreboard in Peoria is overheating, then the Arizona League must be in full swing. And it’s not just because of the triple-digit temperatures.
The rookie-level Peoria Mariners are scoring runs at a football-like pace, and that’s a big reason they’d won six of the first seven games of the season to jump into first place.
The Mariners scored 65 runs in those seven games, including 21 in Thursday’s victory over the Brewers. Twelve of those runs were in the second inning, when the Mariners sent 16 hitters to the plate.