SEATTLE — This out-of-body-experience of a season for the Seattle Mariners does have its finer moments, although some can be just as difficult to explain.
Take Friday, for example.
Left-handed starter Luke French hadn’t won in the majors in more than 11 months but became the August reincarnation of Cliff Lee. And the Mariners’ offense turned from meek to mighty, against Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke no less.
The Mariners managed 10 hits off Greinke and left-fielder Ryan Langerhans, starting for the first time in 10 days, came within a triple of hitting for the cycle in the Mariners’ 6-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Safeco Field.
“Everybody in the dugout was letting me know (about the cycle),” Langerhans said. “I was just going to run as hard as I could if I hit one in the gap or something. It didn’t work out, but it was still a fun night.”
There haven’t been many.
The victory was the Mariners’ 41st this season and their first ever against Greinke, who was 4-0 against them.
Their plan to attack him early in each at-bat worked, especially in the third and fourth innings when they scored twice each time.
Langerhans hit a leadoff home run in the third and Chone Figgins an RBI single in an 11-pitch at-bat when he hit six foul balls off Greinke.
The homer by Langerhans, his third this season, was the Mariners’ first earned run off Greinke since April 14, 2008. Not bad for a reserve outfielder starting for the first time since July 27 because regular left fielder Michael Saunders had a sore shoulder and neck after he crashed into the wall Thursday.
“He doesn’t get to play a whole lot but that’s why we keep him on this club,” manager Don Wakamatsu said. “He can do those things when we need it. That home run kind of shocked some people and all of a sudden it gives you a belief system.”
Jack Wilson’s sacrifice fly and Ichiro Suzuki’s RBI single made the score 4-1 in the fourth, and the Mariners scored their final runs in the sixth on Figgins’ two-run double. Langerhans also doubled in that inning.
“I was trying to get in there, make something happen and bring some energy,” Langerhans said. “It was a heck of a win because everybody contributed. It was a fun one to be a part of.”
French could say the same thing. Finally.
The Mariners obtained him a year ago from the Tigers in the Jarrod Washburn trade, and he pitched nervously for the most part, trying too hard to make an impression on his new team. He went 3-3 with a 6.63 earned-run average and pitched himself from possibility for the 2010 rotation to longshot. His last big-league victory was Aug. 26 last year against Oakland.
French, just 24, lost more than 20 pounds in the offseason and did his best to clear his mind of everything that bewildered him last year. It didn’t earn him a spot on the big-league team by opening day, but he has been called up three times and this time he looks to be sticking.
He held the Twins to seven hits and four runs in six innings Sunday, and Friday against the Royals he pitched a career-best eight innings, struck out a season-high four and, for the first time this season, pitched into the seventh inning. And, he recorded his first victory this year, giving him a 1-2 record.
French spread nine Royals hits through eight innings, allowing only a run in the third inning on Billy Butler’s RBI single. French retired 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced.
“Throw strikes and attack,” he said. “Just pitch my game and not change.”
Simple when it works.
“The third inning they ended up getting three hits in a row with two outs and scored a run, and from that point on he was real good,” Wakamatsu said. “He pitched to both sides of the plate with his fastball. Once he got over the hump, he really started to bear down and pitch aggressively. He made some great pitches when he needed to.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariners at www.heraldnet.com/marinersblog.
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