SEATTLE — If there was ever a textbook method for the Seattle Mariners to win a game, they did it Saturday night in a 4-1 victory over the Texas Rangers.
n Starting pitcher Jarrod Washburn kept everything away from the center of the plate against a powerful Rangers team and gave the Mariners seven innings.
n The Mariners’ two hottest relievers finished off the Rangers, Mark Lowe pitching a perfect eighth inning and David Aardsma closing out his 19th save in the ninth.
n The defense backed up the pitching without a flaw, with both left fielder Ryan Langerhans and center fielder Franklin Gutierrez throwing out runners at second base, and third baseman Jack Hannahan immediately displaying his reputation for fielding on the day he was traded to the M’s by the Oakland A’s.
n The offense muscled up with a couple of Texas-like home runs off Rangers starter Kevin Millwood, a solo shot in the third inning by Russell Branyan and a two-run crusher in the seventh by Rob Johnson that broke a 1-1 tie.
n And the brigade of Spartan warrior helmets above the bullpen bench did their job to perfection.
Spartan warrior helmets?
The Mariners’ often-goofy band of relief pitchers has acquired an assortment of props for the pomp and ceremony that takes place nightly in the bullpen. Among them are three Spartan warrior helmets.
When Johnson’s long fly carried over the fence to break a 1-1 tie, the ball bounced off the roof of the bullpen bench, which in turn caused one of the helmets to fall.
Crisis? Hardly.
“Nothing hurt,” reliever Chris Jakubauskas said. “That’s what it’s there for.”
Come again?
Basically, the helmets are placed in a spot on the roof over the bullpen bench so they overlook the field. In a symbolic way, they attract all that’s good for the Mariners and repel evil.
At least, it was easy to buy that argument after what happened in the seventh inning.
Johnson batted with the score tied 1-1 and Langerhans on first base after a leadoff single. With a .199 average and one career home run, Johnson was asked to drop a sacrifice bunt.
He tried, missed and kicked the dirt he was so ticked at with himself.
“I tried to bunt a slider in the dirt and I was pretty upset at myself,” Johnson said. “They count on you to do a job and you’ve got to do it.”
With two strikes and the bunt sign off, Johnson focused on making solid contact against Millwood, who was fading.
“I’ve been working on staying below the ball and getting the head (of the bat) out, and I happened to get under it,” Johnson said.
The ball carried into the Mariners’ bullpen, where the relievers scurried to place their much-valued Spartan warrior helmet back on its perch. Back in the Mariners’ dugout, manager Don Wakamatsu asked Johnson if that was his first career homer.
“Then he reminded me that he hit his first last year against us in Oakland,” said Wakamatsu, the A’s bench coach last year.
The Mariners added another run in the seventh when Ichiro Suzuki’s single scored Hannahan, who had doubled.
Then the M’s used the staples of their game — pitching and defense — to finish a victory that knocked the Rangers from first place in the American League West and put themselves four games behind the newly leading Angels.
Washburn, who pitched the best game of his career Monday in a one-hitter against the Orioles, held the Rangers to four hits and a third-inning run.
Asked if this was more satisfying that Monday’s performance, coming against the heavy-hitting Rangers, Washburn smiled.
“No,” he said. “But it’s awfully satisfying.”
So was the finishing kick after he left the game with Lowe and Aardsma.
The Mariners have done no worse than held serve by winning two of the three games against the Rangers in this series. Today they can make it three of four and go into the All-Star break with legitimate hopes in the division.
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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