Scott Kazmir, A’s shutdown Mariner’s offense
Mariners’ Mike Zunino strikes out against Scott Kazmir, who fanned nine in six shut-out innings. (Associated Press)
SEATTLE – Let’s start with the numbers, because those are telling enough.
In the Mariners’ three losses during their five-game homestand they scored just one run. In two of them, they were held to three hits or less and shut out. In the other loss, they scored just one run.
The Mariners’ hot offensive start this season gave way this homestand to the marine layer or good pitching or poor hitting. Or a combination of all the above.
That included Seattle’s 3-0 loss Sunday to the Oakland A’s in front of 22,628 fans.
Is it time for manager Lloyd McClendon to be concerned about his offense?
“I was today,” he said. “When I wake up tomorrow I’ll be just fine. Listen, you get two or three hits and nobody looks good and everybody is talking about the offense. A couple days ago we were just fine.”
The Mariners (6-5) struck out 11 times for the second straight game. They didn’t walk, advanced only one runner to second and didn’t hit the ball hard very often.
To be fair, A’s starter Scott Kazmir (2-0, 1.40 ERA) has rolled this season, and he looked especially dominant against the Mariners. He recorded nine strikeouts in six innings before leaving the game because of a forearm issue.
“He was locating everything right where he wanted,” said Robinson Cano, who had two of Seattle’s three hits.
Even after Kazmir left the game, the Mariners managed only one hit – a Cano single with two outs in the ninth inning. The Mariners haven’t won a game in which they failed to hit a home run.
The shame of it is it wasted a quality start from Chris Young. Making his first start since September 2012, Young, 34, pitched six scoreless innings. He gave up four hits and three walks, but he always worked his way out of jams.
He gave the M’s more than they could have expected and matched Kazmir step for step.
“I was really, really pleased with his outing,” McClendon said. “He fatigued a little bit at the end, but he was great for us.”
McClendon added: “I think this guy is real close. I saw his breaking ball start to come a little bit today, and I think when that pitch comes for him, he’s really going to be tough.”
Young’s start is even more impressive considering he nearly retired last summer because of severe pain in his shoulder. He had battled injuries throughout his career and didn’t pitch at all in 2013.
Young turned over a scoreless game to the bullpen, but Charlie Furbush and Lucas Luetge couldn’t keep it that way.
Furbush walked the first batter he faced in the eighth inning. Yoenis Cespedes made him pay by hitting a two-run homer that gave the A’s a 2-0 lead. Luetge then gave up a two-out solo home run to Josh Donaldson in the ninth.