Garcia pitches M’s to 6-2 win over Yankees

By Larry LaRue

The News Tribune

NEW YORK – Jeff Cirillo has seen what Yankee Stadium can do to a team, and now he has seen what it cannot do.

“When I used to come in here with the Brewers, we were always intimidated,” the third baseman said. “These guys? Nothing intimidates them.”

‘These guys’ – the Seattle Mariners – seemed oblivious to the trappings of New York or New Yorkers Friday, jumping ahead of the Yankees and pulling away to a 6-2 victory that made them the first team in the majors to win 20 games this season.

“The Brewers were a young team, I was a young player, and this place overwhelmed us,” Cirillo said. “It was like, ooooooh, New York. This is an older club. Nothing shakes it. Nothing bothers ‘em.”

A week after Ted Lilly one-hit them in Seattle, the Mariners needed just three first-inning pitches to pick up two hits and a run, and for the rest of the night, they kept pecking away.

Cirillo homered. Desi Relaford homered. Ruben Sierra pushed home a run in the seventh.

And Freddy Garcia made each lead seem insurmountable.

“I don’t know if Freddy grew up hearing all about that Yankee lore like I did as a kid,” Cirillo said. “It doesn’t seem like it phases him.”

If it remains true that the road to a title passes through New York- and the Mariners believe it does – then Garcia might well be Seattle’s favorite mode of transportation. He remains the almost mythical baseball best – a Yankee killer.

“Everybody knows what that team is capable of,” Garcia said after beating the Yankees for the second time in a week and the fourth time in his career. “You have to pitch your best against them.”

Garcia has, and did again Friday. Over eight innings he scattered three hits, let his defense work for him and thoroughly dominated New York. He struck out six batters, from Derek Jeter to Jorge Posada to Rafael Soriano.

“That was Freddy at the top of his game,” manager Lou Piniella said. “He had command of all his pitches, he just wouldn’t let them do much.”

With a 94 mph fastball he was dropping on the inside and outside corner most of the night, Garcia also brought along an old friend – a sharp, late-breaking curve ball that was his best of the young season.

“Warming up, I had it,” he said, smiling. “It made me feel pretty good.”

As for the Mariners, they started fast and kept going. Any thought Lilly might have had about containing the Mariners offense again didn’t linger. Ichiro Suzuki lined Lilly’s first pitch of the game into right field.

“I didn’t think about it until I was on first base,” Ichiro said of matching Seattle’s hit total against Lilly last week.

He wasn’t there long. On Lilly’s third pitch, Bret Boone tripled up the alley in left center field, then scored a moment later on a wild pitch.

By the third inning, New York had tied it at 2, but Garcia left the Yankees at that station while the Mariners headed on up the line. Cirillo’s fourth home run and second in as many games put the Mariners ahead, 4-2, in the fourth inning.

From there, a crowd of 47,918 waited for the home team to come back. They’re still waiting.

Though Garcia didn’t need more runs, he got them. And when he required assistance, he got it defensively. After Jeter’s one-out single in the sixth inning, cleanup hitter Jason Giambi lined a Garcia fastball toward right center field – a bolt Boone intercepted in the infield with a marvelous diving catch.

“That’s a great play,” Piniella said. “That ball was crushed.”

After eight innings and 113 pitches, Garcia was ready to finish what he’d started, but Piniella sat him down and went to closer Kazuhiro Sasaki with a four-run lead.

Why?

“Kaz hadn’t pitched in five days, and he needed work,” Piniella said. “Arthur (Rhodes) and Jeff (Nelson) haven’t worked in five days, and they’ll probably get plenty of work the next two games. Freddy gave us all we needed.”

The victory evened the season series between the two teams at 2-2, and might have served to remind the Yankees what Cirillo discovered. The Mariners can be beaten – at Yankee Stadium or Safeco Field – but they don’t seem awed by pinstripes.

“It’s a rivalry, I knew that before I got back to Seattle,” Relaford said. “I saw that last year when I was with the Mets. This city gets fired up for the Mariners, the Mariners get fired up to play here.”