SEATTLE – Through the wisdom of a man with 60 years of pitching experience, Gil Meche has discovered the meaning of life on his fastball.
Meche dominated the New York Yankees in the Seattle Mariners’ 7-3 victory Sunday at Safeco Field, displaying a mentality on the mound that was missing early this season.
He attacked the Yankees early in the count with his fastball, didn’t try to split hairs on the corners of the plate, and pitched seven innings without walking anyone.
In Meche’s four starts since the Mariners brought him back from Class AAA Tacoma, he has walked just three batters. He had walked 29 in the 10 starts before he was demoted to Tacoma, and continued to battle his mechanics and his mind as the walks continued to pile up in the Pacific Coast League.
Then, on July 20, Meche pitched a terrible game in Portland with 78-year-old Cal McLish watching. He couldn’t have been luckier.
McLish, a special assignment pitching coach for the Mariners who has played and coached in the major leagues since 1944, immediately saw that Meche’s problem was more in his head than his arm.
The next day, the old coach and the 25-year-old pitcher talked.
McLish told Meche that pitchers like him with a 96 mph fastball shouldn’t worry about hitting the corners. He told Meche to attack the strike zone and let the life on his fastball make hitters pop the ball up or drive it into the ground.
“He was so convinced about it,” Meche said. “He said, ‘Once you do this, kid, you’re going to have a lot of fun in this game.’ Everything he said made so much sense and it was an immediate turnaround for me.”
In the five games since their talk, Meche has walked four batters.
“It has been a huge change,” he said. “Mentally, it’s a matter of knowing I’m going to pitch in the zone and get ahead of hitters. You’re going to get beat with home runs here and there, but I’d rather know I’m going after hitters than to walk a couple and then give up a home run and a big inning.”
Walks and a big inning were on full display Sunday, although it was the Yankees providing the example.
The Mariners batted around in the seventh when they scored six runs on six hits and two walks. Jose Lopez doubled home a run, Randy Winn and Edgar Martinez hit RBI singles, Bret Boone drew a bases-loaded walk and Miguel Olivo got the last big hit, a two-run single, after he had started the inning with a double.
The rally pulled the Mariners back from a 3-1 deficit and made a winner of Meche, who is 3-5.
He gave up seven hits in seven innings and struck out three, including Derek Jeter for the third out in the top of the seventh with runners on first and second. Jeter had worked his way into a full count when Meche threw the pitch that has restored his confidence, a fastball, that the Yankee swung on and missed.
“That was a big momentum change for the whole game,” Meche said.
And it was further proof of what Meche must do to be a successful pitcher again. He won 15 games last year, but only five after the All-Star break, and this season he didn’t win his first until his fifth start.
Meche not only came back from Tacoma with a different approach, he had a trimmed-down repertoire. The Mariners had him forget about throwing his slider, instead focusing on the quality of his fastball, curveball and changeup.
“When he’s throwing his curveball as good as he is and throwing it in all counts, and when he’s throwing his changeup better than we’ve seen in quite some time, he really doesn’t need another pitch,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “His stuff is so good.”
Ichiro Suzuki gave Meche a 1-0 lead with a first-inning home run off Yankees starter Kevin Brown. It was Suzuki’s second leadoff homer this season and the 11th leadoff homer of his career. His first also was against Brown when the Mariners played the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2001.
The Yankees nicked Meche with a run in the fourth on Bernie Williams’ RBI single and took a 3-1 lead in the sixth when Hideki Matsui hit a two-run homer.
Despite that homer, Meche remained aggressive. He got Williams on a ground out and John Olerud on a fly to center to stop the Yankees in the sixth, then fanned Jeter in the seventh after John Flaherty and Kenny Lofton hit two-out singles.
“There’s a fine line between being aggressive and thinking you’re being aggressive by pitching on the corners,” Meche said. “When I am pitching for corners, that’s not being aggressive.
“When I have games like this, when I can beat the Yankees doing it, I know I can beat anybody.”
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