By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
BOSTON – If there was a sloppier game played in the major leagues Friday, it wasn’t between two first place teams.
When Boston and Seattle matched up, the expectations were high – crisp baseball, a battle between teams with the highest winning percentage in the game.
And somewhere amidst the errors, the baserunning gaffes and silly mistakes, the Mariners managed to beat the Red Sox, 6-3.
“You make three errors against a first-place team, you usually get blown out, it’s over,” Charles Gipson said.
“We play hard, we get after it, we expect to win,” Mike Cameron said, then smiled. “And sometimes, there’s a little luck involved.”
Not surprisingly, it was manager Lou Piniella who cut to the heart of the matter.
“You can play sloppy in the field, miss opportunities at the plate, make mistakes on the bases – and still win – when you get good pitching,” Piniella said. “You can do all those things well, and without good pitching it’s tough to win.
“I looked at our dugout at one point tonight and said, ‘What’s going on out there?’ But our pitching gave us the chance to win.”
Three Seattle errors – by Jeff Cirillo, Cameron and John Olerud – in the first three innings all but handed the Red Sox all their runs, with John Halama forced to get four outs three different times.
By the fourth inning, Halama was gassed – after 85 pitches – and Boston had the bases loaded. Enter Ryan Franklin.
“If they add to that 3-1 lead there, it’s going to be hard to catch them,” Piniella said. “Ryan threw two great breaking pitches and then a fastball in on (Doug) Mirabelli’s hands for the strikeout and we were out of trouble.”
Once the Mariners straightened out their defense, it was their baserunning that kept Boston in the game.
Tying the score in the fourth inning on Ichiro Suzuki’s two-run double, the Mariners lost the chance to go ahead when – on that same hit – Desi Relaford was called out for missing home plate.
“I dragged my foot across it, but I should have just slid, then it wouldn’t have happened,” Relaford said.
Seattle broke through again in the sixth inning, when Relaford singled home one run and Cirillo singled home two more – before being thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double. Before the night was over, Cirillo would be thrown out at second again.
“We’re going to have our first base coach ready with a rope and lasso when Jeff goes by,” Piniella said.
All the mistakes weren’t Seattle’s. Three of the Mariners runs were pushed aboard by Boston walks, and in the eighth inning – down by three – the Red Sox helped beat themselves.
With Mirabelli on second base and two outs, Johnny Damon singled into left field. With Nomar Garciaparra on deck, the safe play was to hold at third base.
Mirabelli tried to score, and Relaford’s throw to catcher Ben Davis was near perfect for the third out of the inning.
And that was that.
Against relievers Franklin (four innings), Arthur Rhodes (one out) and Kazuhiro Sasaki (1-2-3 ninth inning and his 10th save), the best Boston could manage was four hits.
Afterward, no one in the Seattle clubhouse tried to paint it as classic game.
“Good teams don’t play like that every night – or they’re not good teams,” Cameron said. “We take pride in the way we play, and we’ve been in every possible grind situation except the World Series.
“We didn’t play real smooth tonight, but we won.”
They won for the 17th time in 20 road games, a record that matches the major league mark for best starts to a season (1984 Tigers). Piniella, asked to explain that, shrugged.
“We set an American League record for road wins last year, and we’ve just continued that style of play this year,” he said. “These players are fun to watch. They give what they’ve got, every game.”
Now, even when they’re bad they seem to be better than the opposition.
When it was over, when Sasaki had set Boston down on eight ninth-inning pitches, even the hitless Bret Boone found something to be pleased with.
After losing his 12-game hitting streak, during which he had tried to grow a goatee, Boone shaved it and rejoiced.
“I’m cute again,” he said. “And isn’t that what really matters?”
That and winning.
“We kind of stubbed our toes early in this one, but it didn’t effect the team,” Piniella said. “The errors, the baserunning mistakes, nobody was out there hanging their head.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.