Mariners win a series to savor
LARRY LARUE; The News Tribune
LOS ANGELES – They flew to California as that team from somewhere in the Northwest, a group that no one on either coast was taking too seriously.
The Seattle Mariners are happy if taking two of three games from the Los Angeles Dodgers – the team with baseball’s best record – earns them a bit of respect. All things considered, though, they’ll take the wins and move along.
The latest was their 4-2 victory on Sunday.
“Good team, good lineup,” reliever Mark Lowe said of the Dodgers. “We have a good staff – we expect to win. When we get key runs like we did in this series, we expect to win, and we did.”
On a trip where they’ll play the Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox, the Mariners’ attitude as they headed for their cross-country flight was simplicity itself.
One down, two to go.
For those not scoring at home, this team has now won four of its last five games, seven of its last nine and nine of its last 12. Considered an also-ran in a weak American League West, the Mariners beat the Dodgers in their ballpark and didn’t consider it freakish.
“This is a special group,” manager Don Wakamatsu said afterward. “We held early batting practice and 19 guys showed up. What you expect from this team is that we’ll pitch well and we’ll defend. It’s the offense we have to work the hardest at.”
With Garrett Olson continuing to fill in for the ailing Erik Bedard, the Mariners went ahead 1-0 in the second inning, 4-0 in the third and then did what they often do in victory – they rode their pitching the rest of the way.
Jose Lopez, back four days from a week of bereavement leave, set the tone early when he singled in the second inning and decided pitcher Hiroki Kuroda was a little slow to home plate.
“I made the decision to steal,” he said of his first stolen base of the year. “And I got there.”
From second base, he scored the first run of the game on a single by Franklin Gutierrez.
An inning later, Ichiro Suzuki, Russell Branyan and Adrian Beltre – back in the lineup for the last time before shoulder surgery Tuesday – singled for a second run and got the game to Lopez again.
This time, he doubled to straightaway center field for two RBI, his club-leading 45th and 46th. For the series, Lopez had eight hits, only one of them to his pull side, left field.
“Coming back after a week away, I’m trying to stay simple and up the middle. In this series, I hit everything to right field or center,” Lopez said. “When I’m feeling a little stronger, I may try pulling the ball a little more.
“If they’re going to pitch me that way, I’ll hit that way.”
With Beltre gone, the Mariners have talked about moving Lopez from second base to third. He was asked if he was comfortable at third.
“I’m comfortable in the lineup,” he said. “Anywhere but catcher.”
Given that lead, Olson got to the fifth inning with a shutout, then gave up two runs in the heat of an L.A. summer day when he lost a little aggressiveness.
“It’s something I’m working on,” he said. “I pitched one way for four innings, another for one. I have to avoid changing my approach.”
Ahead after five, 4-2, Wakamatsu needed four innings from his bullpen – and got two from Miguel Batista.
“I thought the turning point was Miguel getting us to the eighth,” Wakamatsu said.
Lowe then handled the eighth inning and David Aardsma – the Mariners version of an automatic closer – finished it up with a scoreless ninth. In his last 25 appearances, the opposition has scored once against Aardsma, who now is 16-for-17 in save opportunities.
“We won this one for Adrian,” Wakamatsu said. “We’re going to miss him dearly, his presence. These guys love him, and he came in today and said he wanted to play one more day. He’s in a lot of pain, but he wanted to play.”
And got to.
When the Dodgers came to bat in the first inning, Juan Pierre hit a bullet toward left field, and Beltre stabbed it – the action that hurts him the most.
“First batter,” he said, laughing. “I warm up and there it is, a line drive I have to raise my arm for. It was like getting shot or something.”
And playing his last game for the next six to eight weeks?
“It was emotional,” he admitted.
Perhaps for his team, too, which acknowledged him in the clubhouse afterward. Beltre has played in pain all season, and helped keep this team near the division leaders.
The Mariners left him in Los Angeles when they flew east, and if the New York Yankees don’t take Seattle seriously, that seems fine with the Mariners.
They’ll take the wins and move along.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com
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