Braves handle Mariners

SEATTLE – If the Mariners want to win any games this series, they’re going to have to score some runs before the final two innings.

The Atlanta Braves’ late-inning bullpen is too good to start mounting dramatic comebacks against it and that’s what the Mariners needed on Monday night. Unfortunately for Erik Bedard and the rest of his teammates, the first seven innings were again nothing to brag about offensively as the Mariners lost 3-1 in the opener of their final interleague homestand.

But this was about more than just another loss, which dropped the Mariners to two games behind the idle first-place Texas Rangers. It was a microcosm for all that is wrong with a team that has the pitching to be a playoff and perhaps World Series contender, but the kind of hitting a Triple-A squad would take its chances facing in a seven-game series.

A crowd of 26,467 at Safeco Field, liberally sprinkled with noisy Braves supporters, saw the Mariners once again struggle to get anything going offensively. The Mariners didn’t start stringing any hits together – something manager Eric Wedge has stressed as imperative – until the seventh inning, with the home side already trailing 3-1.

But Franklin Gutierrez grounded into a double play to end the last real chance the Mariners had. The Mariners went down to defeat pretty easily from there against former Seattle left-hander Eric O’Flaherty in the eighth and top-notch closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth.

Seattle was held to just three hits over six innings by Braves starter Brandon Beachy, with its lone run coming via a solo homer to right field from Adam Kennedy in the fourth. That tied the score 1-1 after Brian McCann had opened the scoring for Atlanta with a solo homer off Bedard in the first inning.

And that’s the way things stayed, through the usual offensive fiascos for Seattle and despite every attempt by Bedard to keep his team in it. Atlanta finally took the lead in the seventh inning when Freddie Freeman connected for a two-run homer to center just beyond the reach of a wall-climbing Gutierrez.

The best M’s chance at a lead came in the fifth inning, when little-used Mike Carp led off with a double and advanced to third on a groundout.

But that’s when Chone Figgins, who entered with a .188 batting average and had struck out his first time up, popped the ball up foul along the third-base side where it was hauled in by Julio Lugo. The fans booed as Figgins jogged off the field, his playing time becoming less frequent and less productive with each passing day.

Ichiro then struck out to end the inning.

Wedge has said that the lack of a designated hitter in interleague games played under National League rules had hurt his ability to use certain players. Carp had been sidelined for much of the past week while Carlos Peguero got the bulk of playing time in left field.

Figgins was also benched for most of the week, though he got into Monday’s game because Wedge had the option of sliding Kennedy into DH.

Kennedy delivered the home run, but Figgins did little to justify more playing time. Carp, meanwhile, had the double and then chopped an infield single in the seventh after Dustin Ackley had led off with a single.

O’Flaherty shines

Eric O’Flaherty didn’t think much of it at the time, but one of the biggest breaks of his pitching career happened when the Seattle Mariners decided after the 2008 season they didn’t need him anymore.

O’Flaherty, a Walla Walla native who the Mariners drafted in the sixth round in 2003, was claimed by the Atlanta Braves and he quickly learned that there can be happiness elsewhere.

O’Flaherty went 2-1 with a 3.04 earned run average in 78 relief appearances in 2009, then 3-2 and 2.45 in 56 games last year and, so far this season, was 1-2 and 1.27 in 38 appearances.

Everett Herald

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Heyward rf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.227
Lugo 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.143
McCann c	4	2	3	1	0	0	.307
C.Jones dh	4	0	0	0	0	2	.257
Freeman 1b	4	1	1	2	0	0	.268
Uggla 2b	4	0	0	0	0	0	.175
Gonzalez ss	3	0	0	0	0	0	.243
McLouth cf-lf	3	0	0	0	0	0	.238
Ramirez lf	2	0	0	0	1	1	.111
Schafer cf	0	0	0	0	0	0	.222
Totals	32	3	5	3	1	5

Seattle	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
I.Suzuki rf	4	0	1	0	0	2	.273
Ryan ss	3	0	0	0	1	2	.248
Kennedy dh	4	1	1	1	0	1	.270
Smoak 1b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.251
Ackley 2b	3	0	1	0	1	2	.303
Olivo c	4	0	0	0	0	2	.220
Carp lf	3	0	2	0	0	1	.226
Gutierrez cf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.197
Figgins 3b	3	0	0	0	0	1	.186
Totals	31	1	5	1	2	13

Atlanta	100	000	200—3	5	0
Seattle	000	100	000—1	5	1

E—Ryan (6). LOB—Atlanta 3, Seattle 5. 2B—Heyward (9), Carp (2). HR—McCann (14), Freeman (9), A.Kennedy (6). RBIs—McCann (44), Freeman 2 (32), A.Kennedy (24). CS—W.Ramirez (1). RLISP—Atlanta 1; Seattle 2. RMU—F.Gutierrez. GIDP—F.Gutierrez. DP—Atlanta 1.

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Beachy W,3-1	6	3	1	1	1	9	3.04
Sherrill H,3	1/3	2	0	0	0	0	2.25
Linebrink H,5	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	3.34
O’Flaherty H,15	1	0	0	0	1	1	1.24
Kimbrel S,21-26	1	0	0	0	0	3	2.77

Seattle	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Bedard L,4-6	7	4	3	3	1	5	3.00
Laffey	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.95
Ray	1	0	0	0	0	0	5.32

IR-S—Linebrink 2-0. T—2:38. A—26,467 (47,878).