Opponent: Kansas City Royals
When: 1:05 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: KSTW (channel 11)
Radio: KOMO (1000 AM)
Pitchers: Seattle right-hander Ryan Franklin (3-13, 5.01 earned run average) vs. left-hander Jimmy Gobble (6-8, 5.75).
The first victory
Matt Thornton gave his parents the lineup card after he made his major league debut earlier this season.
The game ball from his first victory? That little prize is staying with him.
Thornton pitched three innings of hitless relief in Game 1 of the Mariners’ doubleheader Saturday and became a winner for the first time as a major leaguer when the M’s came from behind and beat the Royals 9-7.
Thornton hadn’t thrown more than 20 pitches in five relief appearances since the Mariners recalled him from Class AAA Tacoma on Aug. 2. On Saturday, the Mariners needed him for three times as much work.
Taking over in the fourth inning after starter Clint Nageotte suffered back spasms, Thornton threw 62 pitches, struck out five and walked two over the next three innings. Then he held his breath as the Royals nicked but didn’t break the rest of the M’s bullpen.
J.J. Putz, one of Thornton’s best friends, closed out the Royals in the ninth, then gave him the game ball.
Thornton spent three weeks with the Mariners in late June and early July but struggled with his control then. Since the M’s called him back early this month, he’s been a different pitcher.
“I’m being aggressive and I’m staying in the strike zone,” he said. “When I got sent back down the second time, I went right after the hitters. I’m trying to do the same thing up here now.
“It’s no different here. If you fall behind in the count, they’re going to hit good pitches or bad pitches. If you get ahead, you can get away with more mistakes.”
Thornton pitched ahead in the count, got his first big-league victory and the game ball as a memento that he’ll keep for himself.
The hottest day: M’s manager Bob Melvin doesn’t remember the longest day he ever had behind the plate, but he has never forgotten the hottest.
“Cincinnati. Day game. 140 on the turf,” Melvin said of a game he caught in the 1994 season for the San Francisco Giants against the Cincinnati Reds.
How hot was it?
“After 12 innings having a rosin bag in my back pocket because I was sweating so much on my hand, I was borderline delirious,” Melvin said. “I don’t have it to lose, and I lost like eight pounds. That was not a good time toward the end.”
The end finally came when Kevin Mitchell, a former Giant, homered for the Reds. Melvin was overjoyed.
“I wanted to pick him up and carry him around the bases,” he said.
They come, they go: Saturday’s doubleheader drew a paid attendance of 41,362. With one ticket good for both games, only about half of the original crowd stayed for the second game.
Back on the mound: Julio Mateo, on the disabled list since July 29 because of tendinitis in his right elbow, threw off the bullpen mound Saturday for the first time since he was hurt. Melvin said Mateo remains targeted for a mid-September return.
Rookie power: Bucky Jacobsen’s fourth-inning homer in the first game was his ninth this season, the most by a Mariners rookie since Jose Cruz Jr. hit 12 in 1997.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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