SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners have spent two months sifting through their top minor league talent hoping a nugget or two will emerge as legitimate candidates to make next year’s team.
Thursday night, Bobby Madritsch and Jose Lopez never looked more legit.
Madritsch pitched eight shutout innings against the American League’s best hitting team and Lopez hit two doubles and a two-run homer as the Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox 7-1 at Safeco Field.
Ichiro Suzuki also did his part, getting two infield singles to move within 28 of the single-season major league hit record.
This game was about a couple of youngsters.
Against the American League’s best hitting team, and facing a knuckleball pitcher who can make their swings look feeble, neither Madritsch nor Lopez were intimidated.
Madritsch baffled the Red Sox with his change up, allowing five hits while striking out five in eight innings. He raised his record to 4-2 and lowering his earned run average to 3.15.
“The biggest thing is going out there with confidence and not looking at the names on people’s backs,” Madritsch said. “It’s not about what they’ve done up ‘til now. The only thing that matters is what they’re going to do today. That’s the way I think.”
With sluggers like Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz and Kevin Millar comprising the middle of the Red Sox order, that’s a good approach to take. Madritsch held those three to a combined 0-for-10, and struck each of them out in the fourth inning when he relied on his changeup.
“The changeup was a key pitch because it kept them all off balance,” Madritsch said. “I’d start fastball, fastball and then double up on my changeup two or three times. I saw the way they took their hacks, and they almost determined what I was going to throw next.”
Lopez had played only once in his career against a knuckleball pitcher – going hitless in a game at Fresno this season while with the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers – but he hit Wakefield like he was an expert at the knuckler.
Lopez doubled in the second and fourth innings, then hit a full-count knuckleball for a two-run homer in the fifth that broke the game open for the Mariners.
“All I swung at was the knuckleball,” Lopez said. “I waited for it. If he throws me a fastball, maybe I strike out.”
Suzuki went 2-for-4 with two infield singles, leaving him 28 hits from George Sisler’s 84-year-old record of 257. Suzuki, now batting .378, broke his own American League record with his 193rd and 194th singles. He had 192 in 2001.
Suzuki also drew a lot of puzzled looks – even in his own dugout – when he bunted into the third out of the second inning with a runner on second base.
Manager Bob Melvin tried to take blame for that, saying he had spoken with Suzuki after a similar bunt in the previous game but didn’t communicate his message well enough.
“It’s not the manager’s fault. That was definitely my mistake,” Suzuki said.
Still, why bunt with a man in scoring position?
“In that situation, I do it a lot,” he said. “But you’ve got to get it down and you’ve got to be safe. You can’t make an out there. You’ve got to get a hit or you’re going to hear about it.”
It didn’t matter, with Madritsch mowing down the Red Sox.
He left with a 7-0 lead after 126 pitches and eight innings, then watched as reliever Scott Atchison gave up the shutout when Orlando Cabrera homered with one out in the ninth. Atchison gave up two more hits before Gabe Kapler grounded into a double play that ended the game.
Madritsch became the first Mariners starter to win a game since Gil Meche on Aug. 22.
“We really needed a game like that out of a starter,” Melvin said. “That’s a team that’s won 26 of 31 games and is the best offensive team in the league. Pretty impressive stuff.”
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