SEATTLE – Having experienced a Jeff Weaver moment in the first inning Wednesday – three hits, a walk and a 2-0 deficit after the first five hitters – Cha Seung Baek found his rhythm like a veteran who knew two runs wouldn’t beat him.
Unfortunately for Baek, the Seattle Mariners’ offense suddenly turned quiet a night after one of their biggest games of the season. The M’s didn’t get any runs back for Baek, misfiring in crucial situations against right-hander John Lackey in what became a 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field.
It was the Angels who converted their few opportunities, jumping on Baek for those first-inning runs, then building a cushion in the seventh when an infield hit, a walk and a double steal led to three runs, two of those off reliever Eric O’Flaherty.
Then the Angels let Lackey do most of the rest, holding the M’s to four hits in six scoreless innings, twice snuffing scoring opportunities.
“He came in with a 2.70 ERA and he certainly pitched like that,” Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said of Lackey. “He was on his game.”
So was Baek after his rugged start.
M’s pitching coach Rafael Chaves had an on-mound chat with Baek after four of the first five Angels reached base. He was a different pitcher the rest of his 61/3 innings, allowing just three more hits and a run.
“It wasn’t really an adjustment in how he was throwing,” Hargrove said. “It was an adjustment in what he was throwing and when he was throwing it.”
Baek kept the score close and gave the Mariners’ offense chances to get back into the game. They misfired on the only two they had.
In the first inning, Ichiro Suzuki led off with a single – his seventh straight hit over three games – then moved to second on Jose Vidro’s ground out and stole third with Raul Ibanez batting.
Ibanez, however, hit a nubber toward the mound that Lackey charged hard before throwing him out, leaving Suzuki standing on third. Suzuki was stranded there when Richie Sexson, batting just .176 this season but a career .429 hitter against Lackey, grounded out.
Sexson also grounded out in a key at-bat in the sixth after the Mariners loaded the bases with one out.
Lackey had intentionally walked Raul Ibanez to load the bases despite Sexson’s career success off the Angels pitcher. The strategy worked and Sexson hit a fielder’s choice grounder to third baseman Chone Figgins, whose throw home forced out Lopez for the second out.
The Mariners still had a chance with Jose Guillen up next. He worked a full count against Lackey, and the at-bat became strength against strength. Lackey threw his 92 mph fastball and Guillen did his best to put it in play. All he could do, however, was foul it off twice.
Then Lackey fooled Guillen, throwing a breaking pitch outside and in the dirt. Guillen waved at it for strike three, although the ball bounced away from catcher Mike Napoli, who lost sight of it as Guillen scampered to first base.
Napoli finally located the ball to the left of the plate and scooped it up with his bare hand, tagging the plate with his foot to force out Suzuki just before he reached home.
“We got the bases loaded there and I didn’t get it done,” Sexson said. “Then he made a good pitch to Guillen. That was a gutsy pitch right there with the bases loaded. He’s risking a walk and he threw one in the dirt and was able to get out of it.”
The shutout was stark change from the series opener Tuesday, when the Mariners rolled out 14 hits, three steals and 11 runs in beating the Angels. The loss did, however, continue a pattern for a Mariners offense that has struggled for consistency.
They have scored 11 or more runs three times this season, then followed each of those games with losses by scoring two, one and, on Wednesday, no runs.
It’s one reason the Mariners have slipped back to a game over .500 at 18-17 and two games behind the first-place Angels in the American League West.
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