SEATTLE – Pick an irresistible force – Barry Zito or the Oakland A’s altogether – and the Seattle Mariners become a movable object.
It happened again Friday night at Safeco Field, where Zito was entirely beatable for one of the few times in his career against the Mariners, but beat them nevertheless 5-2.
Zito gave up six hits, walked three and pitched just two clean innings among the seven he worked, but he held the Mariners to Raul Ibanez’s third-inning RBI single. Zito, 12-7 this year, ran his career record against the Mariners to 12-2.
The A’s are 10-1 against the Mariners this season, having gone undefeated since the Mariners beat them on April 6.
In the most important numerical column, the American League West Division standings, the first-place A’s extended their spread over the last-place Mariners to 41/2 games. The loss also kept the Mariners from reaching the .500 mark; they’re 53-55.
As important as this series is to the Mariners, manager Mike Hargrove emphasized that it’s still too early to be considered crucial.
“We’ve got two months left to play,” he said. “Do I want to beat Oakland? You bet. They’re in first place. We want to come back and win tomorrow, and then win Sunday and take two of three in this series. But September is a long way off. We just have to pay attention to tomorrow.”
Oakland manager Ken Macha couldn’t find the words to explain why the A’s have dominated the Mariners.
“I look at their players, they’ve got a great team,” he said.
The difference Friday was clear.
The A’s strung their hits together against Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn. The Mariners didn’t against Zito, who gave up seven hits and three walks in seven innings.
“Barry got some big pitches and got a couple double plays to get out of trouble,” Macha said
The Mariners hit into three double plays, including the second and third innings when they had their best opportunities to rattle Zito. Instead, all they got was Ibanez’s RBI single in the third.
“Zito is like a lot of good pitchers in that the deeper they go into the game the stronger they get,” Hargrove said. “You’ve got to get to him early.”
The third had the makings of a big inning after Willie Bloomquist grounded a single to shortstop and Ichiro Suzuki lined a single to center with nobody out. Jose Lopez couldn’t get a bunt down, however, and then grounded into a double play. Zito later walked Adrian Beltre before Ibanez singled to drive home Bloomquist.
That run tied the score 1-1, but the A’s took the lead right back during Washburn’s roughest inning, the fourth.
Eric Chavez and Bobby Kielty led off with singles, and Marco Scutaro drove a double to left field that scored Chavez. Washburn hit Mark Ellis to load the bases with nobody out before Jason Kendall grounded into a double play that scored another run, making it 3-1.
Another hit batter – Kendall – a wild pitch and Frank Thomas’ single gave the A’s a 4-1 lead in the seventh, Washburn’s last inning. He allowed eight hits, four runs, three walks, a wild pitch and two hit batters in his seven innings.
“Zito made pitches with guys on base. I made a couple of mistakes with guys on base,” Washburn said. “Good pitchers find a way to get it done in situations like that. The rest of us screw up.”
Zito had a little luck going for him, too.
Lopez led off the fifth with a single and, with Beltre batting, broke for second base on a steal attempt. Zito flipped a curveball to the plate, a perfect pitch to steal on, but it hung so high in the strike zone that it became a perfect pitchout. Beltre flailed at the ball, but Kendall caught it cleanly and easily threw out Lopez.
The bottom three hitters in Oakland’s lineup – Kielty, Scutaro and Ellis – went a combined 5-for-10 with three RBI and two runs. Scutaro went 3-for-3, including an eighth-inning home run off Mariners reliever Julio Mateo to make the score 5-1.
Richie Sexson’s ninth-inning homer, his 24th this season, made it 5-2.
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