SEATTLE — One good day in September, 2007, doesn’t guarantee anything for 2008 with the Seattle Mariners, unless you’re general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren.
Still, Cha Seung Baek didn’t hurt his chances Thursday night.
On the day the Mariners said Bavasi and McLaren would return next year, Baek at least kept his name on the list of possibilities for the 2008 starting rotation.
In his first start since June 16, the right-hander held the Cleveland Indians to one run in six innings of a 4-2 Mariners victory at Safeco Field.
“He’ll get a good look next spring for sure,” McLaren said. “He threw some good games for us early in the season, then he had some arm problems and it took him a long time to come back from that.”
After that June 16 start at Houston, where the Astros rocked Baek for nine hits and seven runs in four innings, he went on the disabled list with inflammation in his right shoulder.
It sidelined Baek for three months and, after two scoreless relief appearances this month, he started Thursday because Miguel Batista was in Boston receiving an award for a book he has written.
Baek allowed seven hits and didn’t walk anyone in six innings, and the Indians scored only in the second when Kenny Lofton’s triple drove in Casey Blake.
“That team has some firepower,” McLaren said. “The Indians and the Yankees are two of the toughest-hitting clubs in the league.”
With the Mariners headed into the offseason knowing they’ll need at least one and maybe two new starters, Baek couldn’t have pitched a game like this at a better time.
“It put a nice thought in my mind for this winter,” McLaren said. “Let’s get this kid healthy and give him a good look.”
The Mariners backed him with a home-run-or-nothing offense against Indians right-hander Paul Byrd. Jose Guillen hit a two-run home run in the first inning, giving him 99 RBI this season, and Jose Lopez hit a two-run homer in the fourth.
Ichiro Suzuki couldn’t make up any ground in the American League batting race, going 1-for-4 to leave his average at .350. Suzuki was visibly upset at being called out on strikes in the first inning by umpire Alfonzo Marquez, going so far as to mark a spot in the dirt to show how far outside he thought the pitch was.
Magglio Ordonez of the Tigers, who didn’t play Thursday, leads the league at .359.
For the third time in the four-game series, there was the obligatory ninth-inning anxiety.
The Mariners, who came from behind twice in the series to tie the score in the ninth, had to hold a three-run lead this time, and do it without closer J.J. Putz.
Putz had pitched each of the previous two days, so McLaren asked rookie right-hander Brandon Morrow and left-hander George Sherrill to finish the job.
Morrow struck out Blake to start the ninth, then yielded back-to-back doubles by Kenny Lofton and Kelly Shoppash, making the score 4-2. Morrow struck out pinch-hitter Ryan Garko for the second out, and McLaren brought in Sherrill to face left-handed-hitting Grady Sizemore.
Sherrill hit Sizemore in the back with his first pitch. Then he ended the game two pitches later without throwing a strike.
Catcher Kenji Johjima noticed Sizemore had taken a big lead off the bag on the first pitch, and he flashed the pickoff signal to first baseman Ben Broussard before the second.
Sherrill’s next pitch was outside — it wasn’t a pitchout, despite the looks — perfect for Johjima to make a strong throw to Broussard, who slipped behind Sizemore and tagged him out to end the game.
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com.
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