SEATTLE — The way Miguel Batista has pitched in his last three starts, the Seattle Mariners don’t need a closer. They need a beginner.
The first inning Friday night bit Batista where it has hurt him most, in the ERA, and where it has helped the Mariners least, in the win column.
The San Diego Padres popped him for three straight hits, plus a walk, a hit batter and a sacrifice fly, to score three runs in the first inning, leading to a 6-4 victory over the Mariners at Safeco Field.
“It’s tough when you’ve got to think about going to the bullpen in the second inning,” manager John McLaren said. “It upsets you for the series.”
The Padres, who’d scored fewer runs than any team in the major leagues, feasted first on pitches Batista centered over the plate, then on the ones he couldn’t find the plate with.
Jody Gerut lined a triple into the right-field corner on the second pitch of the game and Tadahito Iguchi drove him home on the next pitch with a single to center field. Brian Giles followed with a double to score Iguchi. Giles scored after Batista walked Tony Clark and hit Kevin Kouzmanoff to load the bases before Khalil Greene hit a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
It took nine hitters before Batista ended a 29-pitch, 14-minute first half inning that has become a painful pattern.
In the first inning of his past three starts, Batista has allowed eight hits and seven runs, needing 106 pitches and an elapsed time of 55 minutes to get nine outs.
Iguchi hit a solo homer in the second inning and Josh Bard’s RBI double in the third gave the Padres their fifth run.
“Batista wasn’t real sharp and it took a while for him to get his rhythm,” McLaren said.
The big question is why?
McLaren said it isn’t a matter of Batista not being warmed up enough. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre said he looked good in the bullpen before the game.
As for Batista’s explanation, he didn’t offer one.
He didn’t talk with reporters for the second straight game, unusual for a player known to be media-friendly win or lose. After his 5 1/3-inning outing Sunday against the White Six, which he won, he went to the team bus without talking to the media.
“I don’t know what to say,” McLaren said. “We’ll talk to Miggy and Mel. Miggy did hang on and give us some innings.”
That he did, lasting three hitters into the sixth before McLaren went to the bullpen. Problem was, the Padres had scored five runs by that point, with a sixth on the way before the top of the sixth had ended.
Batista, 3-5, hasn’t lasted more than 5 1/3 innings in any of his past three starts and, having allowed 22 hits and 15 runs in 13 innings, his ERA in those outings is 10.38. His ERA for the season climbed to 6.11.
The Mariners had their offensive moment in the second inning against Padres right-hander Chris Young, and then little more.
Raul Ibanez led off with a single and, two outs later, Kenji Johjima continued his streak of hot hitting with a two-run homer, his fifth this season.
Wladimir Balentien and Yuniesky Betancourt hit back-to-back doubles to score the third run.
The M’s added another in the third inning when Ibanez led off with a double and scored on two ground outs.
After that, they managed little.
A double play wiped out an opportunity in the seventh after Ichiro Suzuki led off with a single, ending his 0-for-16 skid.
Padres closer Trevor Hoffman left the hitters shaking their heads in the ninth after pinch hitter Jose Vidro led off with a single.
Hoffman, threw a diving 75 mph changeup to strike out Suzuki, bewildered Jose Lopez with nothing but fastballs to strike him out, and got ahead in the count against Adrian Beltre with fastballs.
Then Hoffman left Beltre standing with a knee-high, inside-corner changeup for called strike three to end the game.
The Mariners could have used pitching like that in the first inning.
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com
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