SEATTLE — Richie Sexson seemed determined to make contact with something Thursday night, and he did in the fourth inning of another listless loss by the Seattle Mariners — 5-0 to the Texas Rangers at Safeco Field.
In a game already charged with emotion after Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez had hit two Rangers batters, Sexson took exception to a fastball from Texas starter Kason Gabbard.
The pitch was at Sexson’s altitude — chin-high — but not inside. In fact, it was over the plate.
Didn’t matter. Sexson snapped.
He threw down his bat and took off his helmet, carrying it in his right hand as he sprinted to the mound. He threw the helmet into Gabbard’s back as he plowed into the pitcher, then tackled him and tried to get off a few punches.
Rangers catcher Gerald Laird was in quick pursuit, steamrolling the Sexson-Gabbard embrace. Then it turned into a classic baseball fight, with lots of pushing and yelling but no other big blows delivered.
“There’s a right and a wrong way to play the game,” Sexson said. “Hit me below the shoulders and I’m fine with that. I was well aware of the fact that he was probably going to hit me and I go to first, no big deal. When you get up by the face, that’s when you start talking about careers, and start talking about family. There’s a lot of stuff you can lose going up around the head. Nobody should deal with that, it’s the wrong way to play baseball.”
As ugly as the fourth inning was, the Mariners’ hitting performance was no more pleasant.
Shut out for the second straight game by a Rangers pitching staff that ranked next-to-last in the American League in earned run average, the Mariners have scored one run in their past 30 innings. They’ve gone scoreless in 22 straight innings and, with four hits Thursday, they have six hits in their past two games.
The Mariners have lost eight of their past nine games and, at 14-22, have the worst record in the American League.
They entered the game clearly frustrated at their performance, especially offensively, and anger built in the early innings.
“There was lot going on out there, a lot of talking going on,” Mariners manager John McLaren said. “We’re a frustrated ballclub.”
Hernandez had hit Laird on the left elbow with a fastball leading off the second inning. Two hitters later, Hernandez hung a curveball that Ian Kinsler launched into the Texas bullpen beyond the left field fence for a two-run homer and a 4-0 Rangers lead.
Hernandez buckled down and got out of the inning with two strikeouts, and also pitched a 1-2-3 third with the help of a double play.
He was agitated, though, and that became evident on his first pitch to Kinsler with two outs in the fourth. It hit Kinsler in the back.
Kinsler took one step toward the mound, but proceeded to first base. On the mound, Hernandez held out his arms as if to say “Bring it on.”
“Felix is a proud man and he’s a great competitor,” McLaren said. “He’s not going to back down.”
Laird certainly seemed ready for action after Hernandez hit Kinsler. He leaped off the Rangers’ bench and, from the dugout rail, yelled toward the mound.
The bottom of the fourth started calmly — a trait of this Mariners’ offense — when Gabbard retired Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre. Then emotions exploded on Gabbard’s first pitch to Sexson — a fastball over the plate but head-high. Sexson ducked out of the way, then flung his bat into foul territory and charged the mound.
From there it turned into a wrestling match on the mound, plus a scrum of players and coaches from both benches pushing each other around.
“The pitch wasn’t really close. It was just up in the zone and over the plate,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “Things just got out of hand, but we weren’t trying to throw at anyone.”
Besides Sexson and Gabbard, the other principal combatants were Hernandez, Kinsler and Laird.
Hernandez yelled at Ian Kinsler from behind a blockade comprised of M’s catcher Kenji Johjima and, of all people, Rangers reliever Eddie Guardado (a former Mariner).
Laird stood on the other side of the field and acted as though he wanted at Hernandez, but Rangers DH Milton Bradley halted that with perhaps the most impressive move of the fracas. He picked up the 195-pound Laird and doubled him over his shoulder, then carried the catcher into foul territory before putting him down and screaming at him to retreat.
When the game resumed, Sexson had been ejected. Gabbard remained on the mound, although he was pulled after two more hitters with what was described as bruised legs.
“I don’t think how we’re playing had anything to do with it,” Ibanez said of the fight. “Richie took exception to the fact that it was up by his face.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com
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