Mariners struggle, lose to Dodgers

Published 8:00 pm Saturday, June 9, 2012

SEATTLE — The Los Angeles Dodgers saw 114 pitches and came away hitless Friday night.

They wasted little time picking up their first hit on Saturday, opening the game with Dee Gordon’s infield single. Then the Dodgers left the rest to second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. and starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

Hairston Jr. homered in the first inning to drive in Gordon and Andre Ethier and finished the game with a career-high five RBI. Kershaw struck out a season-high 12 batters in seven innings of work as the Dodgers beat the Mariners 8-3. In all, 14 Mariners struck out in the game.

“Hairston had a big day against us,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. “He hurt us. He got some pitches to hit and took advantage of it.

“He really had a big day for them today.”

Hairston finished 3-for-4 with a home run, two doubles, five RBI and two runs scored.

Seattle starter Jason Vargas had trouble shaking Hairston Jr. all afternoon. With two outs in the top of the first inning, Hairston sent a 2-2 pitch over the left-field wall for a three-run homer.

Vargas said that giving up the home run with two outs was frustrating.

“I felt like I executed a pretty decent pitch,” Vargas said. “That’s where we are trying to go with him (Hairston Jr.). That was the game plan in the first place. You can’t really second guess that. He got a good pitch and the runner was out there on second base for quite a long time so he got a pitch up and put it in the seats.”

Two innings later, Vargas faced him again with a similar result. Hairston Jr. hit the ball to nearly the same spot as the home run, just not quite as far. This one went for just a double off the left-field scoreboard and knocked in Elian Herrera.

First baseman James Loney followed Hairston Jr.’s double with an RBI-single to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.

That would be all they would need.

“When you give Kershaw a lead like that after the third inning, you’ve got your work cut out for you,” Vargas said.

The Mariners had little chance to muster anything offensively the way Kershaw was pitching. He gave up two hits in the first inning, an infield single to Ichiro Suzuki and a double to Jesus Montero, but settled down quickly and got out of the inning with two consecutive strike outs.

Kershaw retired the Mariners in order in the second and the third innings. The only offensive damage the Mariners did in the game was in the fourth inning. With one-out, Kershaw gave up a single to Justin Smoak and then walked Kyle Seager. Miguel Olivo followed with his fifth home run of the season, cutting the Dodgers lead to 5-3.

But again Kershaw recovered. He pitched three more innings of near perfect ball — the only blemishes, a hit batter and a walk.

“Kershaw was pretty good,” Wedge said. “That’s the first time I’ve really seen him, well, in a while anyway. … He was able to go get another gear when he needed to. I think you saw that early on when we had second and third and he dialed it up a little bit.”

The velocity and location of the Dodger pitches made it tough on Mariner batters all game.

“It doesn’t have to be Kershaw,” Mariners shortstop Brendan Ryan said. “If you are throwing that hard or you are locating pitches or you know, making it tough on those borderline strikes up in the (strike) zone. It’s pretty tough to get on top of with that velocity.

The Dodgers relievers held the Mariners hitless.

Los Angeles added an insurance run the top of the eighth and two more in the top of the ninth to secure the victory.

Aaron Lommers covers sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.