SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners spent the first five innings Sunday showing how not to play a baseball game, then the last four doing just what it takes to win one.
With hitters who seemed content to swing at every first pitch they saw early in the game and a pitcher who couldn’t keep the leadoff hitter off base, the Mariners made an about-face in the sixth inning beating the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 at Safeco Field.
They scored five runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to overcome a 1-0 Orioles lead, and capped their best offensive day of the week with Miguel Olivo’s home run in the eighth.
Despite losing the first two games after the All-Star break, the Mariners have won two straight, six of their past eight and are 20-20 since June 1. They’re still 13 games behind the first-place Angels in the American League West Division, but that’s a distant goal compared with the challenge at hand.
Early Sunday, it was for the Mariners’ hitters to find some patience at the plate and starting pitcher Gil Meche to quit putting the leadoff man on base.
Meche got through the first inning without problem, but Rafael Palmeiro’s home run in the second started his troubles with the leadoff men. The Orioles’ first hitter reached base five times against Meche, including walks in the fourth, fifth and sixth.
“The only problem I had was leadoff hitters,” said Meche, now 10-6 and the Mariners’ first 10-game winner since five M’s pitchers did it in 2003. “I couldn’t keep them off base. Luckily, out of the stretch, I made some good pitches.”
The defense behind him helped with double play s in the third and sixth innings, including one that Richie Sexson turned while on his knees. B.J. Surhoff hit a grounder that Sexson lunged to field. He tagged the bag with his glove, then threw from his knees to second, where shortstop Mike Morse tagged out Palmeiro.
Offensively, the Mariners took their hacks against Orioles starter Sidney Ponson as if the only good pitch he’d throw them was the first one. Ponson held them to two hits the first five innings and, during one stretch in the fourth and fifth, five straight hitters swung at the first pitch.
That’s hardly what manager Mike Hargrove has been preaching this season.
“Ponson was throwing a lot of strikes, and when a guy does that you’ll start swinging the bat more often,” Hargrove said. “The only thing I didn’t like was that we got so aggressive we were swinging at bad pitches.”
It changed in the sixth, when the Mariners worked the count better and batted around to take the lead.
“We kind of pulled our horns in during the middle of the ballgame, and we started getting to him,” Hargrove said.
Yes, there were discussions in the dugout about showing patience and working the count, especially from hitting coach Don Baylor.
“Donnie was reminding them of it every time they went to the plate,” Hargrove said.
It worked.
Olivo led off the sixth with a single, then used his speed and Hargrove’s order to be more aggressive on the bases to start the winning rally. With Surhoff playing behind him at first base, Olivo easily stole second, and he made it to third with catcher Sal Fasano’s throw sailed into center field.
“I was surprised they played behind Miguel, but I’m glad they did,” Hargrove said.
Olivo scored on Ichiro Suzuki’s sacrifice fly, tying the score 1-1.
Ponson hit Randy Winn with a pitch and walked Raul Ibanez before Sexson grounded a single up the middle that scored Winn. Running aggressively, Ibanez raced to third and Sexson made it to second, and the Orioles ordered Ponson to intentionally walk Adrian Beltre.
It loaded the bases for the rookie portion of the Mariners’ lineup. Ponson struck out Jeremy Reed, but Morse blooped a single to right-center that drove in two runs and Jose Lopez doubled to left field to score another, making the score 5-1.
Reliever Todd Williams, who pitched 13 games for the Mariners in 1999, got Olivo to finish the sixth, but the Mariners raked him in the seventh, aided by some shoddy defense by the Orioles.
Winn hit an infield single and Ibanez bounced a double-play grounder that scooted through shortstop Miguel Tejada’s legs for an error. Sexson hit a sacrifice fly, Beltre reached on a wild pitch after he’d swung at strike three, and Reed hit a broken-bat single to right to score another run, making it 7-1.
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