SEATTLE – They couldn’t beat the best team in a mediocre division. Then they couldn’t lose to the worst team in a good division.
After three straight losses to Oakland and a three-game sweep of Tampa Bay, including Wednesday’s 2-0 victory at Safeco Field on Jarrod Washburn’s best game of the season, the Seattle Mariners stand to learn exactly who they are in the next 11 days.
Tonight, the Mariners begin a stretch of 11 straight road games against American League West Division opponents, first facing the Texas Rangers. They trail the first-place A’s by 5 games and know the head-to-head games against Texas, Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels are crucial, even though more than a month remains in the season.
“We’re getting closer every day to that make-or-break time,” Washburn said.
To keep from breaking, the Mariners will need pitching from their starters like they got Wednesday from Washburn.
Backed again into the corner of low run support, Washburn attacked it the best way possible. He threw his best fastball this season and had the Devil Rays popping it up if they were hitting it at all.
Washburn didn’t allow a hit through five innings, and Ben Zobrist’s bunt single leading off the sixth broke up the no-hitter.
Nobody cried that Zobrist had disturbed any unwritten rule about laying one down in a situation like that. It did, however, stir memories of the controversy that swirled around former Mariner Ben Davis, who was catching for the Padres in 2001 when he bunted in the eighth inning to break up Curt Schilling’s perfect game for the Diamondbacks.
“It was the sixth inning of a two-run game,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
Neither did Washburn, whose energy was starting to run dry as his pitch count climbed. He’d thrown more than 90 through five innings.
“The kid laid a great bunt down,” Washburn said. “It’s a close game, 2-0, and I can’t be upset with that. He’s just trying to get on and make something happen for his team. If it was the eighth or ninth, then maybe it would have rubbed me the wrong way.”
Washburn pitched on, retiring the next three Devil Rays to stop them in the sixth, including strikeouts of Tomas Perez and Damon Hollins.
“Any time I’m successful, the fastball is working for me,” Washburn said. “I was hitting both sides of the plate, up and down in the zone and getting them to mis-hit the ball.”
The Mariners’ offense produced just enough behind Washburn, sparked by another player the M’s need if they hope to make a serious challenge in the division.
Adrian Beltre’s RBI single in the first inning drove in Ichiro Suzuki, who had led off with a double and reached third on Jose Lopez’s sacrifice bunt. Beltre led off the fourth with his 13th home run, driving a one-strike pitch from Devil Rays starter James Shields over the center field fence for a 2-0 lead.
Beltre has homered in four of the past seven games and, since July 23, he has six home runs and 15 RBI in 16 games.
“I feel comfortable now,” Beltre said. “I don’t know why. My body feels light and my hands are working. My confidence is getting better, I’m taking better at-bats and hitting the ball harder.”
Washburn got two outs in the seventh but also gave up back-to-back hits to Travis Lee and B.J. Upton as he wore down, and Hargrove let the bullpen protect the 2-0 lead.
Rafael Soriano got the next four outs to get to the ninth. J.J. Putz, whose day off Tuesday helped restore the life and velocity on his pitches after he’d thrown 58 in the previous two days, overmatched the Rays in the ninth to record his 25th save.
For the first time since July 29, when Washburn beat the Indians, the Mariners gained ground in the standings. An even better omen is that Washburn, 6-11 with victories in two of his past three starts, feels good.
“My body feels good health-wise and I feel like I’m in a good rhythm on the mound,” he said. “My mechanics are where they should be. That’s a recipe for success there. Hopefully I can close out this season strong and help us get to where we need to be.”
The next 11 games will help determine that and even Hargrove, who constantly said “there’s plenty of baseball left” in the past few weeks, knows the importance of the coming games at Texas, Oakland and Los Angeles.
“We’ll either be in it or out of it when we get back from this trip,” Hargrove said. “We’d rather be in it.”
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