Run drought ends …
SEATTLE – The Mariners scoring drought finally ended Friday night.
Their losing ways, however, are still intact after the Chicago White Sox handed the Mariners a fourth straight loss with a 4-2 victory in front of 27,169 at Safeco Field.
Standing at a podium in a room full of reporters seeking answers, a dejected John McLaren was at a loss to explain the offensive woes that have caused his team to lose nine of its last 10 games.
“We’ve tried a lot of things, we’ve tried a lot of lineups, we’ve changed our routine up, and I really don’t have any answers for you offensively why we’re not getting things done right now,” the Mariners manager said.
Coming into the game, the Mariners had been shut out for 22 straight innings and had scored just once in their last 32 innings during a four-game series with the Rangers. Those streaks ended, but the team’s offensive struggles continued against a new opponent.
“It’s a very difficult time, I’ll be honest with you,” McLaren said. “I’ve been in the big leagues 22 years, and I really can’t remember an offensive team I’ve ever been involved with that has struggled as much as we have. Even last year during our bad period at the end of August and September, it wasn’t an offensive struggle like this. It was a little bit of everything.
“With that said, we’ve got to keep going. We’re disappointed, but we’re not quitting. There’s not a quitter in the clubhouse and we’ll come get them (tonight). There’s not really much for me to say right now. There’s just nothing happening right now offensively.”
The Mariners had a chance to end their scoring drought in the second inning when Adrian Beltre reached third base with no outs. Beltre singled to lead off the inning, then stole second and advanced to third on an errant throw by White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
That was as far as Beltre would advance, however. Following a Jose Vidro strikeout, Richie Sexson hit a sharp grounder to third, and Beltre, running on contact, was thrown out at the plate. Jeff Clement singled to keep the inning alive, but Waldimir Balentien struck out with Sexson on third to end it.
The seemingly endless string of zeros was finally interrupted after 24 innings when the Mariners scratched out a run in the third inning. Ichiro Suzuki started things with a one-out single. He stole second, advanced to third on a Jose Lopez groundout, then scored on a wild pitch.
It was not enough to overcome a three-run Chicago third.
Mariners starter Carlos Silva breezed through the first two innings, allowing only one base runner, but got into trouble in the third. The White Sox loaded the bases with one out on two singles and a walk, then took a 2-0 lead on a Paul Konerko double. Jermaine Dye made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly to center.
“I left it up a little bit,” Silva said of his pitch to Konerko.
Silva blanked the White Sox for the next three innings, allowing three hits, and was one out from an easy seventh inning when Chicago designated hitter Jim Thome laced a solo homerun to right field to make it 4-1.
Sexson, in the lineup while appealing a six-game suspension handed out Friday for his role in Thursday’s bench-clearing incident, nearly gave the Mariners a run in the fourth inning with Vidro on base, but was robbed of extra bases when center fielder Brian Anderson crashed into the wall to take away a likely RBI double.
The Mariners didn’t put up much of a fight after Anderson’s spectacular catch. After the Mariners got runners on first and second in the fifth inning, White Sox pitchers retired the next 13 Seattle batters before Balentien hit an opposite-field home run, his third of the season, with two outs in the ninth.
At 14-23, the Mariners have the worst record in the American League and the second worst in the majors.
It is not yet time to panic, however, the players say.