SEATTLE – On their way to a 6-5 loss to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, the Seattle Mariners dealt with more than their 57th defeat.
They lost starting pitcher Gil Meche, who pitched three innings and left with tightness in his right shoulder.
The Mariners wouldn’t speculate on the seriousness of Meche’s ailment, which he called an impingement in the shoulder that wouldn’t allow him to get full extension when he threw.
“Every time I threw a curveball, I kept pulling it because I couldn’t quite get on top of it,” he said. “My curveball wasn’t sharp.”
That much was evident by the one he hung to Indians catcher Victor Martinez, who hit it into the right-field seats for a three-run homer and a 3-0 Indians lead in the third inning.
Meche finished that inning, then left the game.
The Mariners will get a better idea today what’s next for Meche, who said he has felt similar stiffness at least two other times this season. This one, he said, was worse.
“It’s not like it’s a pain,” he said. “It’s a pressure. I thought I would be able to get over it and get loose on the mound, but it never came around.”
Manager Mike Hargrove said Meche wouldn’t have pitched Thursday if he had felt the shoulder problem before the game.
Meche said it did bother him in the bullpen but, like other times, he hoped it would loosen up as he threw.
“You always think it’s going to turn around or get loose,” he said. “I went back out for the third, but probably shouldn’t have done it. But unless I’m in pain, I’m not going to come out of a game, especially hoping the arm will get looser as the game goes on.”
Behind by three runs, the Mariners came back.
Left-handed reliever Matt Thornton gave up two hits and struck out four in the next 31/3 innings, and the Mariners pulled within a run at 3-2 when Miguel Olivo homered in the fifth, Ichiro Suzuki tripled and scored on Randy Winn’s ground out.
Until then, the Mariners had done little against Indians starter Cliff Lee.
Their biggest flash of offense was the first career at-bat by Yuniesky Betancourt, who was called up from Class AAA Tacoma earlier in the day.
He hit a standup triple on the first pitch he saw, joining three others – Mickey Brantley in 1986, Mario Diaz in 1987 and Scott Podsednik in 2001 – as the only Mariners to hit a triple in his first major league at-bat.
The Indians pushed ahead 5-2 in the seventh when they got two hits off Thornton, then Ronnie Belliard’s two-run single off reliever J.J. Putz.
Raul Ibanez got all those runs back in the bottom of the seventh when he hit a three-run homer off Indians reliever Scott Sauerbeck. It was Ibanez’s 99th career home run.
The Mariners held that momentum a matter of minutes.
Indians designated hitter Jeff Liefer led off the eighth inning against Putz with a double to center field that Willie Bloomquist nearly caught.
“I felt like I got a good jump,” said Bloomquist, who got the tip of his glove on the ball. “I was there, I just didn’t reel it in.”
Hargrove brought in right-hander Jeff Nelson, and Aaron Boone dropped a sacrifice bunt that pushed pinch-runner Brandon Phillips to third. Nelson struck out Casey Blake for the second out before Hargrove brought in left-hander Ron Villone to face left-handed-hitting Ben Broussard.
The Indians countered with right-handed Jose Hernandez as a pinch hitter, and he slapped a single to left off Villone that scored the winning run.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
