DETROIT – Five days ago, Seattle bullpen coach Orlando Gomez made one of those off-the-wall predictions that got a good laugh – he said he was going to catch Ichiro Suzuki’s 200th hit today in Detroit.
“He’ll have to make it a home run, but he can do that much,” Gomez said.
Today, Gomez and Ichiro will have that chance – Ichiro begins the day with 196 hits for the season. If Gomez wanted to get another laugh he could make a stranger prediction. He could predict a Seattle win today.
In a game they could have won any number of times Saturday, the Mariners piled up 21 hits, three stolen bases, a pair of home runs and got marvelous pitching from rookie relievers George Sherrill and Scott Atchison.
And they still lost, 11-10, in 11 innings.
“Frustrating, yes,” said Ichiro, who had four hits. “We had chances to win. We didn’t.”
That sums up most of the Mariners’ 76 losses – and certainly this one.
The top two hitters in Seattle’s lineup, Ichiro and Randy Winn, combined for nine hits Saturday but scored only three times, in large part because Bret Boone had a grueling 1-for-6 night at the plate.
“I had an at-bat in the 11th where if I put the ball in play, we score a run and go ahead,” Boone said. “I struck out.”
Boone was hardly the only factor in losing. A bigger one was probably ex-Mariner Carlos Guillen, who had a career-high six RBI for Detroit.
In bases-loaded at-bats against Jamie Moyer in the fifth inning and Shigetoshi Hasegawa in the fifth, Guillen cleared the bases with doubles – then stole a base in the fifth and scored another run.
“No one envisioned Carlos having the kind of season he’s having,” manager Bob Melvin said, trying to laugh. “Right now, I guess it’s not one of the better trades in Mariners history.”
For Ramon Santiago and a minor league infielder, the Mariners sent Guillen to the Tigers., where he has started all but three games for his new team.
In those 119 games, Guillen has batted .314 with 18 home runs and 91 RBI.
“I’m having fun,” Guillen said. “It’s that simple.”
The Mariners are not.
Moyer had a 3-0 lead and lost it, then a 6-3 lead and lost that one, too. Hasegawa gave up three runs in relief, before left-hander Sherrill (two innings) and right-hander Atchison (21/3 innings) managed to shut Detroit down.
And the Mariners, trailing 10-6 before those two rookies entered the game, rallied to tie.
Winn’s five-hit game included a home run, a double and four RBI – the last two coming in the seventh inning to forge a tie.
The Mariners wasted scoring chances – including a first and third with two out situation in the 11th inning, and the Tigers ended it in their half of that inning.
Rondell White singled, but Atchison got Guillen to force the runner at second base before Guillen stole for the second time.
Atchison worked to outfielder Craig Monroe, getting a two-strike count, but on a call that had equipment flying in the Seattle dugout, first base umpire Mike Reilly ruled that Monroe checked his swing.
Instead of a strikeout, Atchison hung a slider that Monroe hit into center field to chase home the winning run.
“It’s the way things have gone for us all,” Atchison said. “I thought I had the strikeout, but I threw that next slider up a little and he did what he should have. It was a bad pitch. I tried to keep us in the game as long as I could.”
As for Ichiro, he may be frustrated but he remains the hottest hitter in the game. Adding two singles, a double and triple to his streak, Ichiro is now batting .526 in the month of August.
After producing two 50-hit months this year, he already has 40 in August with 10 games left.
“In 1994 in Japan, I had 200 hits in about 120 games,” Ichiro said. “I have hit like this before.”
Against what one would assume would be tougher pitching, Ichiro has now played 120 games this season – and picked up 196 hits. Gomez is hoping for four more today.
“Orlando told me that a few days ago,” Ichiro said, smiling.
His response?
“I laughed,” Ichiro said.
But he didn’t say it wasn’t possible.
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