Mariners beat another top team

Staggering toward the finish line with a 3-10 September record, the Seattle Mariners have now beaten the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers – two teams headed for October – in back-to-back games.

By virtue of their 4-0 shutout of Texas on Friday, the Mariners assured themselves there will be no 100-loss season in 2011.

Hey, dreams have to start somewhere.

The Mariners beat Rangers ace C.J. Wilson behind the pitching of former Texas prospect Blake Beavan.

“I was determined not to let them up when I got ahead in the count,” Beavan said. “I wanted to put them away, keep them off balance. I didn’t want to get caught up in who was in the batters box. My focus was one pitch at a time, and I trusted my pitches.”

For the 22-year-old Beavan, it was his finest game as a Mariner – a 13-game sampler in which he’s beaten the Angels twice, the Athletics and now the Rangers. Not a bad audition for 2012.

What runs he needed he got in the third inning, when Seattle put runners on base – and the Texas defense pushed them home.

Outfielder Casper Wells started it with a one-out walk and with two outs took second base on a Brendan Ryan single. When Dustin Ackley rolled a ball toward second, the inning appeared it over.

It wasn’t.

Ian Kinsler fielded and through wide of first base, chasing Wells home and putting Ryan at third base. Perhaps a bit unnerved, Wilson then uncorked a wild pitch to score Ryan.

Mike Carp picked up an RBI when his ground ball up the middle – about to be fielded by shortstop Elvis Andrus – hit the bag and caromed into shallow left field.

“We got runners on base and we were able to take advantage of it, and Blake was able to take it from there,” manager Eric Wedge said.

Back in July, the first time Beavan faced the Rangers, he took the game into the seventh inning and lost, 3-1, when he gave up a three-run home run to Mitch Moreland and was hit with his first big-league loss.

This time around, Beavan went deeper into the game and didn’t make a mistake that could hurt him.

“He’s gained a great deal of confidence in that curve,” Wedge said. “It’s a pitch he needs. It’s a pitch he can command in and out of the zone. With the way he commands his fastball and the way he leverages the baseball with his height, that pitch makes a difference.”

Rangers manager Ron Washington was impressed.

“He moved the ball all around, changed speeds, threw strikes and got into the eighth inning with 87 pitches,” Washington said. “We were swinging at strikes; we couldn’t put the ball in play. He didn’t let us put any runs on the board. The guy has an idea what he’s doing.”

The trouble inning was the sixth, when Texas used back-to-back singles by Endy Chavez and Ian Kinsler to threaten. Beavan calmly got a double play grounder and a popout.

Beavan got to feeling so comfortable with his fastball, he elevated one and got Adrian Beltre to swing through it for a strikeout.

After eight innings, Beavan had a 4-0 lead – Wells had added his 11th home run of the season – and had thrown 95 pitches. Wedge set him down and brought in closer Brandon League in a nonsave situation.

“I wanted to stay out there one more inning, like anyone would, but with Brandon closing, it’s a pretty easy call,” Beavan said

Wedge said Beavan had given the team all it needed, and that he wanted to make the change with the top of the Rangers order due up in the ninth inning.

League came in, faced Kinsler, Andrus and Josh Hamilton – and struck out the side.

The win left the Mariners sitting on 63 wins with a dozen games left to play. It left Beavan as the first rookie to pitch eight shutout innings in a game since Felix Hernandez did it in 2005.

Hey, dreams have to start somewhere.

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