Opponent: Oakland A’s
When: 1:05 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: FSN (cable)
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Gil Meche (9-5, 4.24 earned run average) vs. right-hander Joe Blanton (11-9, 4.61).
Back in town
The man behind the batting cage paced, gestured and rocked from leg to leg Saturday morning, just as he did during the 10 years he managed the Mariners.
Lou Piniella returned to Safeco Field this weekend, where he was part of the FOX crew that broadcast Saturday’s game.
“I really like it,” said Piniella, who provides analysis on Saturday telecasts. “I fly into a city on Friday, do the game and fly back home.”
Most of his work as been on the East Coast, but he got the Seattle game this weekend when FOX’s top announce crew was assigned to the Phillies-Mets game.
“I’m on the third string,” Piniella said. “Lou Piniella can’t pull rank with FOX.”
Big-game lessons: The Mainers are the third-youngest team in the major leagues, averaging 26.74 years on the 40-man roster, and manager Mike Hargrove admits that it shows sometimes.
“For the most part, our young guys have performed well for us. But it is what it is, and this is part of the process you go through,” he said.
The lessons may come hard, but Hargrove says the young Mariners will learn from a tight division race.
“You learn how to win like anybody else,” he said. “You learn how to deal with situations in this time of the year. We can try to protect them as much as we can by keeping them out of the lineup at times, but nothing takes the place of experience.”
Twenty-year-old pitcher Felix Hernandez may have grown the most. He’s 10-9 and pitching his way out of trouble when he wasn’t doing that early in the season.
“Early when he would get in trouble he would try to power through it,” Hargrove said. “Slowly but surely, you see him pitching and doing what he can to go deep into the ballgame.”
Record-setter: Rookie reliever Mark Lowe set the franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings to start a career when he pitched the seventh and eighth Saturday.
Lowe inherited two runners when he entered the eighth and one of them scored on his wild pitch, but that was credited to Jake Woods. Lowe got Marco Scutaro on a sacrifice bunt for the first out, giving him 13 straight scoreless innings to tie Pat Rice’s 1991 record. Rice pitched 13 straight scoreless innings.
Lowe hasn’t allowed a run in 142/3 innings since the Mariners called him up from Class AA San Antonio on July 7.
Of note: Rafael Soriano, who hadn’t pitched since July 19 because of a shoulder ailment, worked the ninth inning in his first appearance since coming off the disabled list Friday. Soriano got two quick outs, walked two and then shattered Milton Bradley’s bat on a grounder that ended the inning. … Mariners relievers have allowed three runs in their past 281/3 innings, a 0.95 ERA. … After drawing more than 44,000 Friday night, Saturday’s game drew 40,115. About 12,000 tickets were available for today’s game.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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