By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – Never flashy and not always appreciated in his three-plus years with the Seattle Mariners, John Halama simply goes about his business and doesn’t really care how anybody else judges it.
“John and I have talked about it a lot,” Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price said. “He’s not looking for any adulation or a great deal of acknowledgement.”
On Saturday, in what catcher Dan Wilson called his most masterful performance as a Mariner, Halama got it anyway.
He held the Red Sox to five hits with a methodical mix of slow fastballs and slower breaking pitches that he put wherever he wanted through 6 1/3 innings, leading the Mariners to a 3-1 victory.
The Red Sox, who came into the series as baseball’s hottest team, limp into today’s finale having lost two straight games and the American League’s best hitter. Manny Ramirez, hitting .372, broke his left index finger when he slid into Wilson’s shin guard in the second inning.
When Halama walked off the mound after Jose Offerman lashed a one-out double in the seventh inning, something happened that he wasn’t ready to experience.
The crowd, many of whom squirmed and groaned on days Halama struggled in previous years, stood and cheered him.
“I heard it and I felt it, too, but I didn’t know how to react to it,” said Halama, 2-0 this season. “I wanted to raise my hand but it just wouldn’t come up. I wanted to tip my cap, but my hand wouldn’t come up to my cap. It feels really good getting a standing ovation.”
They acknowledged the left-hander for what he’d done over 6 1/3 innings, but Price remained mindful of what Halama has accomplished as a Mariner.
His 38-27 career record gave him the third-best winning percentage – .585 – of the Mariners’ current starting pitchers, yet he has pitched in the fifth rotation spot on a drop-in basis and worked much of this season out of the bullpen as well.
He’ll start again on Saturday in Boston, but manager Lou Piniella wouldn’t say whether Halama will become a fixture in the fifth spot.
Fans seem quick to remember Halama’s annual spring training struggles and his early season dropoff last year that forced the Mariners to demote him to the minor leagues. What Price hasn’t forgotten is what Halama did his first two seasons in Seattle, a combined 25-19 record and outstanding work out of the bullpen even though he lusts for a starting job.
“He won 14 games for us in 2000 and pitched two games in the playoffs,” Price said. “You look from the second half of last year, he had a 1.80 ERA for us, and what he’s done for us this year is given us three good quality spot starts and done well out of the pen. He’s got probably the least enviable position on the team.”
Through it all, Halama kept his head up and his pitches down. He struck out four, walked one and, of the 19 outs he recorded, only one came on a fly ball.
“It may be one of his best outings ever,” Wilson said.
Halama issued his only walk in the first inning, but erased that with a double-play grounder. In the second, Ramirez led off with a single and was steamrolling toward the plate after Shea Hillebrand doubled into the left-field corner.
Left fielder Desi Relaford and shortstop Carlos Guillen made two perfect throws, and Wilson blocked the plate with his left shin guard as he tagged out Ramirez. The Boston star paid a painful price with his head-first slide, a broken finger that has sent him back to Boston today for a doctor’s examination.
After that play, Halama settled into a zone that he never left. He gave up just two more hits – both infield dribblers between the plate and the mound – until Offerman’s double in the seventh.
“As the game went along, I felt a lot better,” Halama said. “I felt I could put the ball anywhere I wanted.”
The difference in the game was that Boston’s pitchers couldn’t find such control. The Mariners drew 11 walks Saturday and padded their major league lead with 161.
Starter Darren Oliver walked five batters in the second inning, when the Mariners scored two runs, and was caught flat-footed when Ichiro Suzuki dropped a bunt single with the bases loaded.
“That one even caught me by surprise,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. “Imagine how the Red Sox felt.”
Jeff Cirillo’s single in the sixth drove home Relaford with the third run and, after the Red Sox nicked reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa with a run in the eighth, Kazuhiro Sasaki gave up a hit and a walk before he recorded his eighth save just hours after he had flown to Seattle from Japan.
Afterward, the glow of the Mariners’ 25th victory fell squarely on Halama, whether he was looking for it or not.
“John’s never been flashy,” Price said. “He’s not going to run together a string of three or four complete-game shutouts or put up a 20-win season or lead the team in innings pitched.
“But it’s guys like him that allow good teams to continue to win.”
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