SEATTLE — A computer glitch kept the Safeco Field scoreboards dark Monday night, and Jarrod Washburn did the same to the Baltimore Orioles with the game of his life.
Washburn pitched around not only the technical difficulties, but also the Orioles in a 5-0 Mariners victory that came within a few feet of being a perfect game.
The Orioles’ only hit was a single to left field by Nick Markakis with two outs in the fourth inning that dropped in front of left fielder Ryan Langerhans.
It was the first one-hitter by a Mariner since Felix Hernandez two years ago at Boston, the first Mariner one-hitter at 10-year-old Safeco Field and the second in stadium history — Ted Lily of the Yankees held the M’s to a hit on April 27, 2002.
“It’s the best stuff I’ve ever had,” said Washburn, who’s 5-6 with a 3.08 earned run average.
Washburn’s first complete game in two years also was a major break for the Mariners’ bullpen, which was worn down during the recent nine-game road trip. Monday, no reliever even warmed up.
It’s a new and improving Washburn this year, thanks to some mechanical tweaks by pitching coach Rick Adair and bullpen coach John Wetteland that have created more life on his two-seam fastball. That, along with pinpoint control of everything he threw, was the key Monday.
“That’s what I owe it all to, that mechanical adjustment,” Washburn said. “I knew early on that I had good stuff and good command, and I concentrated on keeping it that way. We threw one changeup the whole game. The four-seam and two-seam were both working great, and I had a little flipper curveball that (catcher Rob Johnson) calls a dolphin.”
Other than Markakis’ single, the Orioles rarely squared up a ball or dribbled and blooped anything that came close to another hit.
Third baseman Chris Woodward made a charging, barehand grab of Adam Jones chopper and threw him out to start the seventh inning.
Woodward also delivered two of the biggest at-bats of the night for the Mariners, who nursed an early 1-0 lead after Russell Branyan’s 425-foot home run to center field in the first inning. Woodward’s ground out to first base in the fifth inning moved Johnson, who’d led off with a double, to third base with one out. Ichiro Suzuki then singled him home for a 2-0 Mariners lead.
In the sixth, Woodward hit a two-run double to left field after the Orioles intentionally walked Johnson to load the bases with one out.
Langerhans hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh for the Mariners’ fifth run, which was more than enough for Washburn. The M’s hadn’t scored more than four runs in any of his previous 10 decisions.
“The guy has pitched a lot of big games without a lot of run support,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “He’s pitching as good as I’ve ever seen him. Back in the World Series in 2002, he tried to power guys. You see a lot of left-handers who get a little more crafty as they get older, but he still has good velocity on his fastball. And he’s starting to understand, to soften it a little bit, use his sinker, use his breaking ball.”
Oh, and on Monday, Washburn learned not to use the scoreboards. He couldn’t.
A computer problem darkened all but the stadium’s big video screen, wiping out such information as lineups, hitting statistics and pitch velocity.
“Once in a while I’ll look up there and see a stat on a guy, and maybe I’ll want to face the guy behind him,” Washburn said. “I do look at the velocities now and then, just to see if I want to do something different — to see if I don’t have life on my fastball or if I’m not throwing my curveball slow enough, if I’ve got to take a little more off my changeup. Stuff like that.
“But,” he added, “it worked out pretty good tonight without it.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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