Pineda shines, but Danks blanks M's

Rookie Michael Pineda had eight wins when he was named one of the Seattle Mariners’ All-Star representatives last month, and he’s been sitting on nine wins since July 30 – four starts ago.

Despite throwing a marvelous six innings Saturday, that 10th victory eluded him again as the Chicago White Sox manufactured a couple of runs and rode John Danks’ pitching to a 3-0 win.

With a Safeco Field crowd of 30,522 cheering him on, Pineda retired the first nine batters – striking out five.

The White Sox dugout took notice.

“The first time through the lineup, Chicago saw what Michael was doing and they couldn’t get a baserunner,” Mariners pitching coach Carl Willis said. “That’s why they played it differently in the fourth inning.”

Ah, that fourth inning.

Leadoff hitter Juan Pierre squared to bunt, then chopped hard at the ball and hit a one-hopper over Pineda’s head but well in front of shortstop Brendan Ryan. Base hit.

“That Pierre, he’s really fast,” Pineda said.

From the Chicago dugout, Ozzie Guillen called for a hit-and-run, and Alejandro De Aza grounded a clean single to put runners at first and third base with no one out.

Guillen wasn’t done. With Paul Konerko up, he sent De Aza and Konerko hit a soft line drive just over Ryan’s head to score Pierre, moving De Aza to third. A fly ball scored De Aza to make it 2-0.

“I felt pretty strong,” Pineda said. “They got a couple of runs, but I got back and pitched my game.”

Those were the only runs he allowed in his 25th start of the season, but they beat him when Danks threw a complete-game shutout as the Mariners managed three hits.

The White Sox? They managed four, including a De Aza home run off rookie Chance Ruffin in the eighth inning.

Manager Eric Wedge, who hates crediting opposing pitchers, did so with Danks, a left-hander he’s seen plenty of.

“That’s as good as I’ve seen him,” Wedge said. “He spotted his fastball as well as anyone we’ve faced this year. That said, Michael pitched really well, too. He had a live arm, was getting his breaking pitch over. He was doing what we want him to do.

“Over the course of 30 starts or so, you’re going to have nights when you have to work for it, adjust inning to inning, pitch to pitch. Michael has done that all season.”

Still, at the All-Star break, the 22-year-old right-hander was 8-6 with a 3.03 earned-run average. Since then, he’s 1-2 with a 5.40 ERA and four no-decisions.

Is something wrong with the big fella?

“You’ve heard us preach all season, the job of every starting pitcher each time out is to give this team the chance to win,” Willis said. “Since the All-Star break, Pineda has done that and tonight was another example.

“It’s tough in the second half of a season, when teams are facing you for the second, third time, and Michael has been sitting on nine wins for a while now. Ten is a big number – double figure wins – and he hasn’t had the best of luck. He left his last game with a lead we didn’t hold.”

Pineda, who threw 101 pitches through six innings, wanted a seventh and asked Willis for it.

No deal.

“I told him, ‘If this were May or June, maybe. If this were next year at this time, maybe,’ ” Willis said. “But he only worked 139 innings last year and he’s at 153 innings now. We’re not going to risk anything for one more inning.”

So Pineda awakens today 9-8 with a 3.71 ERA, part of a six-man rotation that will limit his starts as the team limits his innings. He understands.

What might have made the argument moot was the one thing Pineda didn’t have Saturday – run support. Against Danks, the Mariners got two men as far as second base.

With all of three hits, and never more than one in an inning, the Mariners never pressured Danks, never got their crowd into game.

It was, for the White Sox, a must-win, getting them to .500 and keeping them seven games behind the American League Central-leading Detroit Tigers.

As the season races toward an end, the Mariners are going to face five teams – several of them for two series – with a chance to make the post-season.

Winning those games becomes more difficult, if only because the Mariners are not in that position.

At 56-75, their goal is to “finish strong,” as Wedge said.

Pineda, for one, is trying.

“I worked inside with my fastball and kept my slider down and in,” he said. “I threw a lot of good change-ups. I know it’s a long season, and I work hard every day to be strong for the final month. That one inning, they got two. That was enough.”

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners