M’s let down Batista
OAKLAND, Calif. – This was certainly a pitchers’ duel in which the Mariners came well-armed.
There was little to fault Miguel Batista for on a night when he pitched nearly eight strong innings and seemed poised for victory until one too many fly balls got away from him. But a bigger reason for this 3-2 defeat to the Oakland A’s had to do with the same problems that have lingered for Seattle since the week began.
The Mariners put plenty of baserunners on against Oakland Athletics pitcher Chad Gaudin, enjoying a breakout season in the Bay Area. But as was the case in a series loss to the Kansas City Royals earlier in the week, far too many of those runners never made it home.
While the Mariners left eight runners on base, the A’s mustered only six hits off Batista before he was pulled with two outs in the eighth. But two of those hits, solo home runs by Nick Swisher and Bobby Crosby in the sixth inning, were enough to give the A’s a much-needed victory in the opener of this four-game series.
The Mariners lost for the third time in four games under new manager John McLaren and have scored just 13 runs in their past five contests. The loss dropped Seattle 4 1/2 games behind the division-leading Angels and 2 1/2 behind Detroit in the wild-card standings.
Batista lost for the first time in Oakland, a span of eight appearances.
“It was a well-pitched game both ways,” McLaren said. “Miguel did an excellent job for us. We just couldn’t get anything going tonight.”
Both pitchers struggled in the first inning.
Gaudin gave up a run in the first inning on a Jose Guillen single, then saw the Mariners load the bases with only one out. But Kenji Johjima, back quickly from a bruised hand that sidelined him one game, grounded into a double play to end the threat.
Oakland loaded the bases in the bottom of the first after two walks issued by Batista. But Crosby was caught staring at a called third strike and Batista was out of the jam with his 1-0 lead intact.
It stayed that way until Jack Cust tied it in the third with a single to right field that scored Shannon Stewart from second.
Right fielder Guillen looked like he might have a play at the plate, but bobbled the ball as he tried to pick it up.
Guillen otherwise had a flawless night, notching a pair of singles and a double his first three trips to the plate.
Guillen’s second single of the game, in the fourth, put him on base and he scored a go-ahead run soon after on a single to left by Adrian Beltre.
Batista was cruising by that point. After a 23-pitch first innings, he needed only 42 more to get through the next four frames and took a 2-1 lead into the sixth.
But that’s when Swisher greeted him by slugging a 1-0 offering just beyond the right-field fence to tie the score.
Guillen saved Batista later in the inning, racing to the right-field corner to make an outstretched catch that robbed Dan Johnson of an extra-base hit.
But moments later, Crosby stepped up and blasted a Batista pitch over the wall in left center to give the A’s their first lead of the game.
Batista (8-7) ended up giving up three runs and six hits in 7 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out five.
“They weren’t bad pitches at all,” Batista said of the two home runs. “I didn’t miss my location but I didn’t stick to my game plan. I hit my spots but I was supposed to go with something different. Both of them were fastballs but I wanted to throw a different kind of fastball. Sometimes its just location.”
Seattle didn’t quit and kept putting baserunners on against Gaudin. Johjima singled to put runners on first and second with two out in the eighth when Gaudin was lifted in favor of relief pitcher Santiago Casilla.
Casilla, called up earlier this season from Class AAA call-up, had allowed just one earned run in 17 2/3 innings and stranded all 10 of the baserunners he’d inherited. Casilla stranded two more when Beltre hit a fielder’s choice grounder to third that ended the inning.