SEATTLE – Grady Sizemore survived I-5 traffic in the Blazer he drove in high school and talked his way into the Safeco Field parking lot, took a purpose pitch to the backside and experienced a near brawl.
In between on Friday, he enjoyed one of his best games as a major leaguer.
Sizemore, a former three-sport star at Cascade High School in Everett, led off the game with a home run and came within a double of hitting for the cycle in the Cleveland Indians’ 10-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
He tripled in the fourth inning, singled in the fifth and reached base five times.
“I don’t rate my games, but it’s nice to have one like this with a lot of friends and family here,” said Sizemore, who is staying at his parents’ home in Mill Creek during the four-game series. “To have a good game in front of them makes it a little bit sweeter, I guess.”
The Mariners got absolutely no joy in this one, and they may have an opening on their pitching staff because of it.
Besides getting two players – Yuniesky Betancourt and Ichiro Suzuki – hit by pitches after Sizemore was plunked, starting pitcher Aaron Sele struggled again.
This time, it may have cost him his place with the Mariners.
On the day the team designated veteran catcher Pat Borders for assignment, Sele struggled through four innings in his worst outing this season. He has lost seven straight games and has a 9.30 earned run average this month.
“Would I be surprised if they let me go?” Sele asked afterward. “No. I was insurance here from the beginning of camp – and last-place teams don’t need insurance. Especially the way I’m pitching.”
With 19-year-old prospect Felix Hernandez starting today for the Tacoma Rainiers, he would be on schedule to pitch for the Mariners on Thursday at Detroit.
The Indians pounded Sele for 12 hits and nine runs, including home runs by Sizemore and Victor Martinez, whose three-run blast in the fourth inning made it an 8-1 game.
“Everything he threw, they hit and they hit hard,” manager Mike Hargrove said of Sele. “We tried to get him as deep into the game as we could, because our bullpen was fried after pitching six innings (Thursday). He couldn’t get outs.”
Amid the Mariners’ anguish, there was headache.
Center fielder Jeremy Reed left the game with a slight concussion after he slammed into the center field wall trying to catch Sizemore’s fourth-inning triple.
Sizemore finished 3-for-4 in his sixth career three-hit game. He had three hits three times last year, and also on April 19 at Kansas City and May 4 at Minnesota this season.
His chance for a career-best four-hit game – and a double to complete the cycle – ended when Julio Mateo struck him out in the ninth.
Before Sizemore had a chance to hit for the cycle, the frustrated Mariners hit him with a pitch as the game collapsed into a battle of hit batters, emptied benches and, of course, a blowout. The Indians had a 10-1 lead in the seventh inning and Sizemore already had reached base four times when he batted against Mariners reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa.
Hasegawa, who’d just given up a home run to No. 9 hitter Jason Dubois, planted a fastball into Sizemore’s back. Without a word, he took his base while plate umpire Chris Guccione ejected Hasegawa.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Sizemore said.
Mateo finished the inning, and payback from the Indians came swiftly.
Cleveland starter Kevin Millwood, who had held the Mariners to seven hits and one run on Randy Winn’s first-inning homer, threw his first pitch into Betancourt’s left hip.
Soon, both teams were congregating near the first-base line with most players and coaches making sure nothing uglier occurred. It didn’t, although Joel Pineiro, Raul Ibanez and Adrian Beltre took turns holding back the angriest Mariner, catcher Miguel Olivo.
Millwood, meanwhile, headed to the Indians clubhouse after being ejected for the first time in his career.
He was joined two innings later by reliever David Riske, a Renton native who lives in Issaquah. Riske hit Suzuki on the right hip in the ninth inning and also was ejected.
The benches didn’t clear this time, although Olivo and Scott Spiezio each took a stride onto the warning track in front of the Mariners’ dugout while other players approached the top step.
The Mariners scored twice in the ninth on Raul Ibanez’s two-run single before Arthur Rhodes got the next three outs. It finished a night that was one of the Mariners’ ugliest, but one of the best for Sizemore, who raised his average to .286.
“You take the positives with the negatives and go to the next day in this game,” Sizemore said. “But it’s nice to go home and feel good about your day.”
When Sizemore goes home this weekend, he’s really going home.
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