Pitching, timely hitting come through for M’s again

Sele improves to 6-0 this season

By Kirby Arnold

Herald Writer

SEATTLE — Bryan Price sat his pitchers down the other day and laid a jaw-dropping statistic on them.

On first-pitch strikes, league batters are hitting no better than .074 against Mariner pitchers. "If that isn’t a number that slaps you in the face and tells you to get the ball over the plate, I don’t know what will," said Price, the Mariners pitching coach.

The message? Don’t nibble early in the count. Trust your stuff and throw a strike.

Or, in the case of the Mariners, pitch like Aaron Sele pitches.

Sele threw strikes on 19 of his 31 first pitches Sunday and reaped a huge benefit. He beat Roger Clemens and the New York Yankees 6-2 and pushed his record to 6-0 for the first time since his rookie season in 1993.

Sele walked one Sunday, giving him just three walks in his last seven starts. He’s walked just eight in 57 innings this season.

"I’m just trying to make quality pitches," said Sele, who won his 60th game in the last four seasons, tying Randy Johnson for second place in the major leagues during that span. Pedro Martinez leads with 66 victories. "If you can repeat quality pitches, you can have success."

The Yankees scored both of their runs in the third inning after Alfonso Soriano led off with a double, Chuck Knoblauch bounced an infield single and Sele smacked Derek Jeter on the left wrist. Paul O’Neill grounded out to score a run and Bernie Williams hit a sacrifice fly.

By that time, the Mariners already had five runs off a surprisingly wild Roger Clemens.

Clemens walked Mark McLemore, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud in the first inning, then faced Bret Boone after having thrown 12 consecutive balls. Boone pounded Clemens’ first pitch, a belt-high fastball, to the wall in right-center field to clear the bases.

The Mariners scored twice in the second inning when Clemens yielded a leadoff single to David Bell and a double down the left-field line by Ichiro Suzuki — his first hit in a span of seven at-bats, including his 0-for-4 day Saturday that stopped a 23-game hitting streak. Carlos Guillen, who reached on a fielder’s choice before Suzuki’s double, scored when Clemens uncorked a wild pitch, and Suzuki scored when Soriano fielded John Olerud’s easy grounder and lolly-popped a throw that pulled Tino Martinez off first base for an error.

Olerud drove in the Mariners’ sixth run in the fourth with a single that scored Guillen. Olerud, hitting in the shadow of Suzuki, quietly has assembled a 12-game hitting streak.

Sele, meanwhile, mixed his speeds and location to keep the Yankees off balance. He was particularly effective at pushing the Yankees off the plate, even if it meant smacking Jeter in the wrist in the third inning.

"I have to (pitch inside) because I don’t throw 95 (mph)," Sele said. "I have to work both sides of the plate."

He makes sure, however, that he gets the plate, especially with that first pitch.

"The one thing about Aaron this year is that he has stayed away from nibbling," Price said. "He keeps the defense involved. He keeps the game moving. He’s doing all the things he needs to be successful."

Sele also got the unlikeliest of double plays in the fourth inning to maintain a 5-2 lead.

Jorge Posada was on second and Scott Brosius on first when Soriano lifted a low fly to medium center field. Mariners center fielder Mike Cameron battled the sun and made a backhand catch, but dropped the ball as he transferred it to his throwing hand.

Second base umpire Jerry Meals, however, flashed a "safe" sign, ruling that Cameron never caught the ball. Posada had retreated toward second and Brosius to first, and Cameron threw the ball to Guillen, who tagged Posada and stepped on second to force out Brosius.

"It was a catch," Cameron said. "If I’d dropped it, it would have fallen in front of me."

In scorekeeper’s terms, it was an 8-6-6 double play.

"What is 8-6-6?" manager Lou Piniella asked. "It sounds like an area code. All I know is that we got two outs out of it."

From that moment on, Sele took care of the rest himself, retiring 11 of the next 13 Yankees before relievers Arthur Rhodes and Jeff Nelson finished up.