All-Star good

David Pauley showed he was human last week when he allowed a run.

Until then, no relief pitcher in the American League had been as good 21/2 months into the season as the right-hander who turned 28 on Friday.

How good?

All-Star good, according to some admittedly biased people wh

o’ve watched Pauley this season.

“You’re asking an old middle reliever here,” said Mariners pitching coach Carl Willis. “But heck yeah, he’s an All-Star.”

It’s not impossible for a middle reliever or setup man to make the All-Star team, but it’s not likely. Someone as new to the job as Pauley, despite his effectiveness, has about as much chance to make it as Chone Figgins does of getting a standing O after his next error.

Pauley gladly accepts perhaps the most unsung of roles on the team and he doesn’t dwell on the All-Star talk.

“Obviously I’ve thought about it,” he said. “It’s in the back of my mind, but that is where it needs to stay because as a bullpen guy you’re not out there to get recognition. You’re out there to help our starters or get the closer to that situation so they can shine in their spotlight. It’s a great thing to be noticed a little bit, but in turn that’s not why we’re out there. We’re out there for support.”

Considering where Pauley was less than two years ago, out of a job after he’d pitched nine years with the Padres, Red Sox and Orioles organizations, he doesn’t need to be an All-Star to feel he has arrived.

With a 1.14 earned run average in 391/3 innings of relief entering this weekend’s series against the Phillies, Pauley has been the Mariners’ most impressive pitcher out of the ‘pen. Until he allowed a run against the White Sox on June 6, he’d pitched 18 straight scoreless innings.

“Statistically he’s gone beyond anything I did in my career, but he reminds me of myself,” Willis said. “He had some ups and downs, and now he’s finding his niche and he’s taking advantage of it and he’s not taking it for granted. If you ask anybody in the clubhouse, he’s probably the one player guys are most happy for because it hasn’t been an easy path for him.”

Hardly.

The Padres drafted him in the eighth round in 2001, and his 2.81 ERA with Eugene was 10th-best in the Northwest league in 2002. Two years later, he was out of the organization, traded to the Red Sox along with outfielder Jay Payton and infielder Ramon Vazquez in exchange for outfielder Dave Roberts.

From there, he bounced from Class AA Portland (Maine) to AAA Pawtucket, with a couple of big-league stints with the Red Sox. After the 2008 season, the Red Sox traded Pauley to the Orioles, and he wobbled through the 2009 season at Class AAA Norfolk with a 9-12 record and 4.37 ERA.

After that season, his ninth in baseball with barely a taste of the majors, the Orioles let him become a free agent.

“It wasn’t a terrible year, but it was in a time when jobs were not really out there as much as they use to be,” Pauley said. “I was in a tough situation.”

The Mariners, an organization also headed a different direction with newly hired general manager Jack Zduriencik, signed Pauley on Dec. 14, 2009.

“It was almost like a kick in the butt to make the best of the situation because you know it may be your last,” Pauley said. “I came into spring training last year with a clear mind to do whatever was asked of me.”

He pitched well at Tacoma and, on June 27, the Mariners called him up.

“From then on, I just said, ‘Make the best of it,'” Pauley said.

He’s stayed in the big leagues ever since and, this year, has been as important to the Mariners’ late-inning success as closer Brandon League.

Pauley went to spring training competing for a rotation spot, but when Erik Bedard proved he was healthy and rookie Michael Pineda showed he was ready, that chance vanished. Still, he had value to the Mariners as a reliever, and that’s how he made the opening-day roster.

Since then, with some guys pitching well and others not, the Mariners moved Pauley from a multiple-inning middle-relief role to late-inning setup duty.

The key to his success, even as a one-inning reliever, is that his background as a starter has helped him flourish. He doesn’t overpower hitters with his fastball, but he has four pitches — fastball, sinker, curve and changeup — and the ability to throw them all for strikes at any time in the ball-strike count.

The sinker is a key pitch because Pauley gets so many ground balls with it, but the others keep hitters guessing. Last Monday, he locked up the Angels’ Peter Bourjos with a called-third-strike curveball, and Wednesday he got Bobby Abreu to lunge and swing through a full-count changeup with the Angels threatening to overturn a one-run Mariners lead.

“There are a lot of guys who can go out and sink the ball and take their chances with that,” Willis said. “He’s a different case because he does have the curveball he can flip for a strike and lock you up late.

“He has really improved his changeup this year. That pitch has allowed him to become more efficient. They see a sinker and all of a sudden they see what they think is the same pitch, but it doesn’t quite get there at the same time.”

Bottom line is that Pauley has been nasty to opposing hitters this season. It probably won’t make him an All-Star — League, the league saves leader going into this weekend, is more likely to go — but that doesn’t diminish his importance in the eyes of his pitching coach.

“Those closers wouldn’t be saving those games and become All-Stars themselves if not for that (middle relief) guy,” Willis said. “In this day and age, starters don’t pitch eight innings very often anymore.

“People may say that David has done this only 21/2 months, but he’s approaching 40 innings, so he’s done it for a while now. In my eyes, he definitely is an All-Star.”

Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.marinersblog and follow his Twitter updates at @kirbyarnold.