If Blake Beavan hit the proverbial end-of-the-season wall on Tuesday, the entire Seattle Mariners lineup joined the crash.
The 22-year-old rookie pitched five innings against Oakland – two of them good ones – while his teammates rang up nine woeful frames in a row in losing to the Athletics, 7-0.
It wasn’t the way Beavan or his teammates wanted to bring down the curtain at Safeco Field, where they play one more game tonight, and it certainly wasn’t what old-school manager Eric Wedge wanted to see.
“You finish strong, you play it out,” Wedge said. “You owe that to the fans, you owe it to the game and you owe it to yourself.”
Oakland showed up ready, and whatever Beavan threw early, the Athletics seemed to hit.
A one-out walk and single set the table for designated hitter Josh Willingham, whose 29th home run caromed of the second-deck facade beyond left field for a 3-0 lead.
The game never got any closer, much to the disappointment of the crowd of 18,600 at Safeco Field.
“I couldn’t hit my spots. I just couldn’t make a pitch when I needed to. I wasn’t finishing my pitches off, and when I do that I’m usually up and pitches flatten out,” Beavan said. “The difference tonight? In the past I’ve adjusted. This time, I couldn’t.”
Beavan began the night 5-5 with a 3.83 earned-run average, with a combined 190 innings pitched in 2011 – 97 of those coming as a Mariner.
He rallied to get through the second inning, gave up two more runs in the third and, after striking out the side in the fourth inning, allowed a two-run home run to Scott Sizemore that put him behind, 7-0.
The Mariners offense? Through five innings, it had two hits.
Wedge said Beavan gave it his best on a night where he clearly didn’t have his best stuff.
“Blake was a little out of sync early on, a little choppy. What you always want to look for is for him to find it and pick it back up, and he did,” Wedge said. “We wanted to give him a little more time to find it.
“He didn’t have the fastball command he’s had, and he really had to fight through it today.’
About the best Beavan could hope for afterward was that Wedge and the Mariners front office wouldn’t hold his worst big-league start against him all winter. After showing them he could devour innings and keep his team close in most of his first 14 games, this one was forgettable.
At least, he hopes so.
“I had more good than bad up here, and that’s what I’ll take into the offseason,” Beavan said. “I pitched against teams you know can do damage, and I did OK.”
Wedge agreed.
“It doesn’t take anything away from the season he’s had, but it’s something he can look at and recognize what was a little bit different tonight and learn from it,” Wedge said.
“He needs to look at tonight, recognize it and learn from it, and then look at his entire season. It was a good break-in for him”
As for the rest of the Mariners? Well, they haven’t put together a .234 club batting average this season by hammering the opposition – although four hits wasn’t much of an output even by those standards.
The result wasn’t just their 94th loss of the year, it was the 15th time they had been shut out.
Those 15 shutouts? They tie the franchise single-season record. Nine of those shutouts have come since the All-Star break.
Wonder what to get Wedge and Co. for the holidays? How about a big bat – and a hitter who can swing it?
The only bright spot Tuesday was the Mariners’ bullpen, which was close to perfect. Jamey Wright, Cesar Jimenez, Shawn Kelley and Tom Wilhelmsen each worked an inning of relief.
Combined, they allowed two hits.
Left-hander Jimenez came in to face three left-handed hitters and retired each of them. Wilhelmsen, who has taken a liking to the setup role, worked the ninth inning this time out and struck out two of the three men he faced.
What has he found this season?
“The strike zone,” he deadpanned.
Ichiro led off the game for Seattle with his 184th hit of the season – his 154th single – but the team never got a runner as far as third base. That hit, however, moved Ichiro into a tie with Kenny Lofton for 109th place on the all-time hit list with 2,428.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
TODAY
Oakland (Gio Gonzalez: 15-12, 3.25 ERA) at Seattle (Anthony Vasquez: 1-5, 8.89), 7:10 p.m., Root Sports, 710-AM
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