D-Rays give M’s a boost

Published 9:00 pm Monday, August 7, 2006

SEATTLE – It was just another game, no more or less meaningful than the three they played against Oakland over the weekend.

Or so the Seattle Mariners would have everyone believe.

At stake Monday night was more than the need for the Mariners to feel a victory again after three brutal losses to Oakland. With the A’s having won again and the Mariners behind by a run to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, all that stood between falling another game behind the A’s in the AL West standings and a victory was the one big hit they never got over the weekend.

Raul Ibanez got it Monday, lining a two-run home run in the fifth inning and setting up a finish by the best part of the team – the bullpen – in a 5-4 Mariners victory at Safeco Field.

Manager Mike Hargrove rolled out four relievers, including closer J.J. Putz for the final 11/3 innings after he’d thrown 30 pitches on Sunday. Hargrove said it had everything to do with the situations he faced Monday and no connection to the three losses to the A’s.

“It was just this game as it broke down,” Hargrove said. “It has nothing to do with the last three days.”

Still, nobody was comfortable with the prospect of falling a season-low 71/2 behind in the standings, and Hargrove used the best of his bullpen to protect a one-run lead the final four innings.

Julio Mateo pitched 11/3 innings, taking over for struggling starter Jamie Moyer with one out and two runners on base in the fifth.

George Sherrill got the final out of the sixth and the first two in the seventh.

Rafael Soriano finished the seventh and got two outs in the eighth, but also gave up two hits that put runners on first and third.

That forced Hargrove to use Putz, who’d endured a long ninth inning the previous day against Oakland.

“J.J. threw 30 pitches yesterday,” Hargrove said. “There comes a time when you’re playing on guts alone, and tonight was one of those.”

Putz didn’t have his blazing fastball – more often it hit 96 mph than the usual 98, and he struggled to control it – and his split-finger pitch was bouncing so badly that catcher Kenji Johjima spent much of his time on his knees blocking it.

Since Putz became the closer in May, Hargrove has used him eight times to get more than three outs.

“I don’t want to do it often because you pay the price at the end of the season,” Hargrove said.

Putz struck out Jorge Cantu to end the eighth but gave up a leadoff single to Travis Lee in the ninth. Greg Norton flew out to center for the first out, but Putz walked Dioner Navarro, then got B.J. Upton on a grounder to shortstop that put runners on second and third with two outs.

Putz walked Jonny Gomes to load the bases, then found a last bit of gas to get Ben Zobrist to hit a fly to center, ending the game.

“I couldn’t draw a deep breath,” Hargrove said. “It was exciting.

“We had the right people in there, but the other side of that is we’ve had to use those people a lot the last four or five days. Our bullpen was thin coming into tonight. It’s more thin going into tomorrow.”

Who’s left?

Jake Woods, Sean Green and Mark Lowe didn’t pitch Monday, so they should be available today.

And Hargrove will make his daily check with Putz to see if the big closer will be available again, despite having thrown 58 pitches in two days. He knows what Putz will say.

“He’ll say he’s fine,” Hargrove said. “And I’ll say, ‘You’re lying.’”