Blake Beavan gave the Seattle Mariners a quality start Saturday, which would have played better had the Chicago White Sox not gotten a perfect one from Philip Humber.
“My high school coach coached both of us and told me I threw a lot like Humber,” Beavan said. “We both played in Irving, Texas.”
Humber, 29, was out of high school by the time Beavan, 23, got there.
“I was always hearing about how good a pitcher he’d been in high school,” Beavan said.
Beavan wasn’t bad, either, named the 2006-2007 Texas high school player of the year, throwing a perfect game and striking out 18 batters on March 6, 2007.
Humber threw a perfect game Saturday. Against Beavan and the Mariners.
“Even in the ninth, I was thinking, ‘We can win this,’ because no one likes losing,” Beavan said. “I watched him battle all day, make pitches all day. When it was over, yeah, I could be happy for him. Not during the game, though. I wasn’t excited about losing.”
For the record, Beavan went six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, facing 27 batters – the same number Humber faced in nine innings.
When it was over, Beavan was 1-2 with a 3.26 earned-run average.
Humber was 1-0 with a 0.63 ERA – and a game that will be forever part of the Hall of Fame as his cap is going to Cooperstown.
HITTING WOES
Sixteen games into the 2012 season, the Mariners offense is batting .223, has been shut out three times and doesn’t have a single hitter batting .300 or better.
What’s worked?
Batting third, Ichiro Suzuki began the day hitting .279, finished at .266 but leads the team in RBI with nine.
After batting .415 in spring training, Ichiro has tried adjusting to a new spot in the batting order – having played 1,203 games as a leadoff hitter in Seattle.
“You can see him being a little more selective, trying to drive the ball when he gets the right pitch,” Mariners manager Eric Wedge said. “Ichiro knows how to hit.”
SHORT HOPS
Left-handed rookie Lucas Luetge pitched a 1-2-3 inning in his sixth appearance of the season Saturday. He’s yet to have allowed a run in 32/3 innings. … While Humber threw the first perfect game against Seattle in history, two pitchers – Dwight Gooden and Mark Langston, who combined with Mike Witt – have no hit the Mariners. … It may not show up in the big leagues for awhile, if ever, but Baseball America ranks the Mariners sixth in its organizational talent rating. A year ago, Seattle ranked 18th. … Going into Saturday’s game, the Texas Rangers led the American League with 10 quality starts – games in which their starting pitcher went six innings or more and allowed three runs or less. Second in the league was Seattle, with nine. Beavan’s was No. 10.
ON TAP
Seattle hosts the Chicago White Sox in a 1:05 p.m. game that will be televised on Root Sports. Probable starting pitchers: Chicago’s John Danks (1-2, 4.82) vs. Kevin Millwood (0-0, 6.30).
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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