SEATTLE – After the Seattle Mariners’ last-known hurrah, a 6-2 victory over Oakland on Thursday, manager Mike Hargrove cautioned against too much euphoria over the team’s apparent affinity for scoring runs.
It’s early in the season, Hargrove reminded, “But it beats the alternative.”
Sunday, the alternative beat the Mariners for a third straight game.
Oakland right-hander Rich Harden held the Mariners hitless until the fifth inning and without hope until he was long gone in the ninth of what became a 6-4 A’s victory.
The Mariners, held scoreless for 27 innings before they scored in the eighth, rallied against the A’s bullpen before Jose Lopez grounded out with the runners on second and third to end the game.
The Mariners’ once dazzling homestand, when they started 3-1, finished with three straight losses and a 3-4 record.
“The games as a whole, we played well,” Hargrove said. “If we play defensively and pitch the way we pitched over the seven-game series, we’re going to be fine.”
And if every opponent pitches the way Oakland starters Joe Blanton, Barry Zito and Harden did the past three days?
“That would concern me,” Hargrove said. “But we’ve got good hitters in our lineup. We’re going to get hits and score runs.”
Harden mixed a fastball that reached 97 mph with sliders and changeups, retiring the first 14 Mariners before Adrian Beltre ended the no-hitter with a single to center field two outs into the fifth inning.
That ended the Mariners’ 112/3-inning hitless streak against the A’s, which was second in offensive frustration only to their run of scoreless innings.
They hadn’t scored since the sixth inning Thursday, and Harden ran the shutout streak to 27 innings – two short of the Mariners’ 2004 franchise record – before he finally cracked in the eighth.
By then, the A’s led 6-0 after scoring once off M’s starter Joel Pineiro in the third, three times in the fifth and twice in the seventh.
Then the Mariners showed two innings of hope.
Harden walked Beltre to start the bottom of the eighth and Jeremy Reed followed with a single. The A’s brought in reliever Justin Duchscherer, who walked Willie Bloomquist and hit Lopez to force in the Mariners’ first run in three games.
Then, against other mere-mortal A’s relievers, the Mariners showed their first signs of true offensive life in the ninth.
Carl Everett and Beltre drew back-to-back walks from right-hander Kirk Saarloos, who threw a wild pitch that advanced them to second and third. Reed hit a soft grounder to first for the second out of the inning, but it scored Everett to make the score 6-2.
Kenji Johjima drove in a run with a single, Bloomquist singled off Huston Street, and Ichiro Suzuki batted with two runners on base and the score 6-3. He bounced a one-hopper back to Street, whose high underhand flip pulled first baseman Nick Swisher off the bag, allowing Johjima to score.
It ended when Lopez grounded out to end the game.
“We played 27 outs,” Everett said. “We fought to the end.”
Despite Harden’s early dominance, one swing – by A’s slugger Eric Chavez – made the difference in the outcome.
Oakland led 4-0 in the seventh when Pineiro, his pitch count climbing to 110, gave up a two-out single to Bobby Crosby.
The Mariners had left-hander Jake Woods warming up but they chose to stick with Pineiro against the left-handed-hitting Chavez.
“I thought they might want to (use a left-hander), but I’m not a guy who’s going to say bring in a lefty for me in that situation,” Pineiro said.
Pitching coach Rafael Chaves went to the mound to check on Pineiro and was convinced he had enough to face Chavez.
“I told him I was fine,” Pineiro said. “I wanted to go after him. I fell behind 2-0 and threw a fastball for a strike, then a changeup.”
He left that changeup high and over the plate, and Chavez drove it into the right-field seats for a two-run homer.
“No excuses,” Pineiro said. “I hung a pitch and he made me pay.”
In three games, none of the A’s starters made such a mistake.
“They were as good as we’ve seen in a long time,” Hargrove said. “Are we as good a hitters as we were the first four games of this homestand? I don’t know. But are was as bad as we were the last two? We’re not.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
