SEATTLE — The “gnats” delivered a big bite Friday night for the Seattle Mariners.
San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy laid that label on the irritating top of the Mariners’ batting order at spring training, and they were in full hatch Friday night at Safeco Field.
Suzuki and Figgins combined to reach base five times, steal two bases and score three times in the Mariners’ 11-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
The Mariners didn’t come close to hitting a ball out of the park — 11 of their 12 hits were singles — but they hit three sacrifice flies, dropped a sacrifice bunt by Jack Wilson and drew six walks, including three by Figgins.
They also harassed the Tigers into three errors, and by the time they scored six runs in the fifth inning to break the game open, every hitter in the lineup had a part. That included a 10-pitch at-bat by Rob Johnson, who drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth.
The six-run fifth doubled the Mariners’ best one-inning rally this season — and the 11 runs for the game surpassed what they’d scored in their previous four games combined.
All that from a team that started the season counting four runs in a game as a blessing.
“We’re a much better offensive team than we’ve shown,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “But we do have to do things, whether it’s Jack Wilson’s bunt or Figgy’s three walks or Johnson’s bases-loaded walk.”
Through 10 games, the Mariners averaged 2.8 runs. After Friday, it was up to 3.5, easily enough for staff ace Felix Hernandez to win the 100th decision of his career. Hernandez is 1-0 this season and 59-41 in his career.
Hernandez held the Tigers to four hits and two runs, all in the fourth inning, and struck out nine before Wakamatsu lifted him after 105 pitches with two outs in the seventh inning.
“That’s a tough lineup over there,” Wakamatsu said of the Tigers, who came into the game averaging 5.4 runs. “I thought he got a little bit tired at the end because of the emotion involved.
“He’s such a tremendous competitor. He gives it his all. You can see it in the dugout and you can see it in big plays. When you get in tough situations, and there were times in the second inning alone when he had three three-ball counts, that takes a toll,”
What began as a pitching duel between Hernandez and Kennewick native Jeremy Bonderman turned with two outs in the bottom of the third inning. That’s when Suzuki reached third base and Figgins first, and together they harassed their way into a into a three-run Mariners rally.
Bonderman paid as much attention to the baserunners as he did to the hitter at the plate, throwing to first base twice, faking a move to third and first, and stepping off the rubber once.
Then Bonderman threw what the Mariners expect when Suzuki and Figgins are on base — a mistake. He left a pitch up and over the outside half of the plate, and Franklin Gutierrez drove it into the right-center field gap for a two-run triple. Jose Lopez followed with an RBI single to left field for a 3-0 Mariners lead.
Then everyone with the Mariners got involved.
Hernandez, who’d carved up the Tigers in three perfect innings, wobbled through the fourth. The Tigers popped him for three hits, including Miguel Cabrera’s two-run double to make the score 3-2.
Hernandez finished that inning by striking out Brandon Inge, and within two innings the Mariners turned a tense game into a rout.
In the fifth, Lopez, Ken Griffey Jr., Milton Bradley and Casey Kotchman lined up four singles in a row off Bonderman — Bradley’s hit scoring Lopez for a 6-2 lead — and Rob Johnson followed with the at-bat that broke the game open.
Johnson fell into a two-strike hole, then worked a bases-loaded walk to score Griffey.
That ended Bonderman’s night, but Tigers reliever Brad Thomas hardly halted the rally.
Jack Wilson hit a sacrifice fly for the first out, and Suzuki followed with an RBI single to center, making the score 9-2. Figgins drew his third walk of the game — and his team-leading ninth this season — before Gutierrez hit an RBI single to left and Lopez a sacrifice fly to right. Griffey hit a grounder for the third out, ending the Mariners’ biggest inning of the season.
“I thought we played as a team tonight,” Wakamatsu said. “I thought the approach was outstanding, one through nine.”
The Mariners finished the game without Milton Bradley, who has a sore knee — the team didn’t specify which knee.
“He’s had a little bit of tenderness in his knee and I thought it was a good time to get him out,” Wakamatsu said. “Nothing serious.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog.
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