SEATTLE – Two of the Seattle Mariners’ most unexplained trends continued Saturday night at Safeco Field.
The team that has suddenly found ways to come from behind and win did it again, overcoming a five-run deficit to beat the Colorado Rockies 8-7.
The Mariners had to, because pitcher Joel Pineiro struggled again in what has become a nightmare year, allowing seven runs in 22/3 innings, his shortest start this season.
Behind 7-2, the Mariners scored twice in the fourth inning, twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth, the winning blow provided by Ichiro Suzuki’s two-out, two-strike, two-run homer.
Without Raul Ibanez’s magnificent defense and hitting in the first inning, the outcome could have been different.
Ibanez saved a run when the first hitter of the game, Jamey Carroll launched a drive to left field that seemed targeted for the Rockies’ bullpen. Ibanez, sprinted straight to the wall, leaped and reached his glove to the bullpen side of the padding, where he caught the ball and pulled it back to turn the first homer of the game into the first out.
“I saw a replay of a guy in Japan jumping on the fence and pulling one back, I saw Ichiro (Suzuki) do it once here last year,” manager Mike Hargrove said. “And I saw Raul do it tonight. I’ve been in this game 35 years and those are the best I’ve ever seen.”
Ibanez wasn’t finished.
In the bottom of the first, he gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with his 18th homer of the season, a drive over the wall in right-center with Suzuki on second after a leadoff double.
That lead vanished not long after Pineiro returned to the mound.
The Rockies batted around in the second inning to score five runs on five hits for a 5-2 lead, stirring boos from the crowd..
It all continued – the Rockies’ romp over Pineiro and the crowd’s uneasiness with it – in the third inning as Yorvit Torrealba hit a two-run homer and Jamey Carroll bounced a ground-rule double.
Hargrove pulled Pineiro after Carroll’s hit, and the crowd booed even louder. They were all over Pineiro as he made the lonely walk off the field.
Just a few strides from reaching the top step, he made a movement that’s open to interpretation by Pineiro and those who saw it.
He tugged at his crotch.
It happens all the time on the baseball field as players adjust their protective cups, even in a stadium filled with spectators. The timing of Pineiro’s action, however, was curious given that it occurred as the crowd voiced its displeasure with his pitching.
Pineiro said he wasn’t aware that he’d done it until after he’d gotten into the dugout.
“That’s what some of the guys said I did,” he said.
Pineiro said he was not reacting to the crowd.
“Definitely not. They’re not pitching,” he said,
Hargrove was on the mound handing the ball to Jake Woods and didn’t see it.
“I heard a commotion and after I got back to the dugout I asked Hass (bench coach Ron Hassey) and some of the guys if something’s going on, and they said no,” Hargrove said. “I didn’t see it.”
The past seven weeks have been an up and down existence for Pineiro, most of it down. He has won just two of his past 10 outings.
The question issue now is what’s next for Pineiro. Two weeks ago, the Mariners had mulled pulling him from the rotation after two brief outings. That’s apparently not in anyone’s plans now.
“Joel over-threw,” Hargrove said. “He had good stuff coming out of the bullpen and he just tried too hard. All seven runs came with two outs. Joel will be better next time. It’s good that he feels strong.”
When all seemed lost, the Mariners made a game of it.
Left-hander Jake Woods took over for Pineiro and pitched 22/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits, an intentional walk and a wild pitch. What he did best was give the Mariners’ offense a chance to figure out Rockies starter Byung-Hyun Kim.
Carl Everett’s two-run homer in the fourth was the start, and the Mariners scored two in the fifth on Richie Sexson’s RBI single and a wild pitch by Rockies reliever Ray King.
In the sixth, with two outs and a full count against Rockies right-hander David Cortes, Suzuki pulled the ball into the right-field seats for his fifth homer, turning a one-run deficit into an 8-7 Mariners lead.
Suzuki finished 3-for-3 with two walks, and he needed a triple for the cycle.
“I think he’s one of the great hitters in this game,” Hargrove said. “I would not have said that until I got a chance to see him on an everyday basis.”
That blow allowed the bullpen to finish its stellar work.
Julio Mateo pitched two scoreless innings and got the victory, and J.J. Putz mowed down the Rockies in the ninth for his 15th save.
“Woods came in and was absolutely golden,” Hargrove said. “He allowed us to do what we did, which was to give us a chance to get to Putz in the ninth.”
And, it allowed the Mariners to climb back over Texas and into second place in the American League West, leaving them just one game behind first-place Oakland.
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