By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – You’re a contestant on “The Weakest Link,” and you’ve already bombed questions that all the others somehow got right. When was the War of 1812? Where is Boston College?
Geez, they don’t talk about that stuff on sportstalk radio.
But before Anne Robinson, the snippy woman who hosts the show, can ask whether it takes two hands or just one to count your brain cells, she drags out a topic you can handle.
“Name the five major league pitchers with 60 or more victories in the last four seasons.”
In a flash, you name them – Pedro Martinez, Aaron Sele, Randy Johnson, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux.
You knew because Sele won again Thursday night, a 2-1 Seattle Mariners victory over the Baltimore Orioles that not only was his 62nd in the last four seasons, but the 100th of his eight-year career.
Sele held the Orioles to four hits and a run over 7 1/3 innings to push his career record to 100-63. In remaining undefeated this season, Sele became the American League’s first eight-game winner, and he lowered his earned run average to 2.69 (third-best in the AL).
Not even Martinez, whose 67 victories since 1998 are all that stand between Sele and the top of that five-man rotation for the ages, has the record this season that the Mariners’ ace has.
Mention it to Sele and he deflects it with a tunnel vision that won’t allow him to look back. He would rather focus on team performance and the future.
“Just a great team win,” Sele said. “That’s the special thing about it. It’s nice to keep the ball rolling.”
Oh yeah, that.
The Mariners’ roll continues.
The victory continued the blissful monotony of a season that baseball hasn’t seen in 46 years. The M’s are an unimaginable 40-12, becoming the first team since the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers to win 40 of its first 52 games. They’ve also won eight straight games, and they have swept seven series.
All Sele needed Thursday was a two-run blip from the Mariners offense in the third inning and huge dose of relief pitching from Arthur Rhodes in the eighth.
David Bell, who followed his 2-for-4 night Wednesday with a 3-for-3 performance that raised his average 15 points to .238, singled in the third inning and scored on Edgar Martinez’s sacrifice fly. Ichiro Suzuki, who went 1-for-3, followed Bell with a walk and scored on John Olerud’s RBI single.
Then it was hold-on time.
The Mariners led 2-1 when the Orioles’ Melvin Mora led off the eighth with a ground-rule double and went to third on Jerry Hairston’s sacrifice bunt.
Rhodes entered the game to set up a left-vs.-lefty showdown with Brady Anderson, and he got just what Sele was wishing for on the bench. Anderson hit a one-hopper to a drawn-in Olerud at first base, who threw out Hairston at the plate for the second out. Chris Richard slapped a single to right, but Rhodes got David Segui on a grounder to end the threat.
Closer Kazuhiro Sasaki pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 21st save and the completion of Sele’s 100th victory.
Afterward, Sele reflected on … his next start.
“I don’t really look back,” he said. “I look ahead. I can relax a little now, but I’ll go back to work tomorrow and get ready to pitch again in five days. It’s a great milestone, but any time a pitcher wins a ballgame, he had a lot of other help.”
Al Martin, whose struggles at the plate continued with an 0-for-4 night that left him hitting .151, made the defensive play of the game when he made a running backhand catch of Greg Myers’ drive to left-center. Martin made the grab just as he crashed into the wall at the 388-foot mark.
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