By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – As Ted Lilly held the Seattle Mariners hitless inning after inning, a feeling took hold in the Seattle Mariners’ dugout.
It may have been Lilly’s night, but it was going to be Freddy Garcia’s game.
“He got into it, and he gained confidence as the game went on,” Mariners catcher Dan Wilson said. “He was able to turn it up a notch in certain situations, and that’s the mark of a real good pitcher.”
It was the mark of a winner on Saturday, when the first pitcher to blink lost.
Lilly, five outs from pitching a no-hitter, made his only mistake of the game when threw a letter-high fastball that Desi Relaford drove into right field for a single with one out in the eighth inning.
The Mariners’ only hit of the night scored pinch-runner Luis Ugueto in a 1-0 Mariners victory before a regular-season record crowd of 46,047 at Safeco Field.
“He had to pitch well because their guy pitched excellent,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said.
Garcia allowed four hits and pitched out of four Yankee scoring threats.
“I was focused on what I was doing and making the pitches,” Garcia said. “It’s a tight game and I like to be on the mound in those situations.”
Kazuhiro Sasaki escaped the heart of the Yankees’ batting order in the ninth, finishing off his seventh save with a strikeout of Rondell White to end the game.
Nobody seemed destined for stardom like Lilly, a left-hander who mixed speeds, locations and the shapes of his pitches to throw the Mariners off balance through 7 1/3innings.
“He’s throwing a fastball at 91-92, and his changeup was real slow,” Wilson said. “It’s a tough combination.”
When Wilson drew a one-out walk in the eighth, it became the breakthrough that the Mariners finally converted. One inning earlier, Jeff Cirillo was hit by a pitch with nobody out before Lilly retired the next three.
This time, speed helped make a difference.
Ugueto, a fast-running rookie used almost exclusively as a pinch-runner, replaced Wilson at first base with Relaford at the plate. On a 1-1 pitch to Relaford, Lilly threw a wild pitch that allowed Ugueto to reach second.
Lilly threw another strike, then a ball, and third-base coach Dave Myers flashed the steal sign to Ugueto.
“With two strikes, it’s pretty much see it and hit it. I was thinking he’d throw me a fastball,” Relaford said, “and I got it.”
Lilly threw a high fastball over the plate, Ugueto made a head-down charge toward third base and Relaford connected. All in that order.
As Relaford’s ball dropped safely into right field, Ugueto was on his belly after sliding head-first into third, unaware the ball was in play.
Piniella was yelling “Go!” from the dugout, Relaford was yelling “Go!” from first base, and so was Myers just a couple of feet away from Ugueto.
Problem was, most of the crowd was screaming the same thing.
“I was yelling with everything I had,” Myers said. “But it’s so loud in that situation, yelling isn’t going to get it done.”
“All I wanted was for the kid to get up,” Piniella said. “We were prodding him along, believe me.”
Ugueto looked up to see Myers motioning him home, and he sprinted to the plate without a throw from Yankees right fielder John VanderWal.
That run gave Garcia a victory that pushed his record to 3-2 and lowered his earned run average from 5.02 to 3.93.
Garcia’s greatest moment of truth was the eighth inning after VanderWal led off with a double. Garcia then struck out Nick Johnson, Alberto Castillo and Alfonso Soriano.
“Even better was his pitching to induce the double play ball from Jeter,” Piniella said.
Garcia twice got the Yankees to hit into inning-ending double plays, including a huge pitch sequence to Derek Jeter with a runner on third in the sixth.
Soriano stood on third with one out after a three-base error by right fielder Charles Gipson, who started because Ichiro Suzuki couldn’t play with stitches in his left knee.
Garcia pitched carefully and walked Bernie Williams, then got nasty with Jeter. He threw a sinker that Jeter bounced to shortstop Carlos Guillen, who turned into an inning-ending double play.
“Last year Freddy got in trouble because he’d get a guy in scoring position and he didn’t want people to put the ball in play,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “And that always led to a big inning.
“He didn’t get into that mode today. He showed commitment to stay with the pitch (to Jeter) and he executed. Instead of trying to throw a pitch that he thought the kid would miss, he threw a pitch that he thought the kid would hit.”
As impressed as he was with his own pitcher, Jeter praised Garcia.
“He throws 96 and he never throws the ball straight, and that’s tough to face,” Jeter said. “They both pitched well, but somebody had to lose.
“Garcia got to us, and he got the win.”
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