Mariners drop second straight

WASHINGTON -- A terrific at-bat by veteran catcher Pat Borders in the seventh inning Saturday night put the Mariners in position to regain the one-run lead that was lost two innings earlier, and possibly end the longest winning streak in the Major Leagues.
All they needed was a productive pinch-hit at-bat from rookie Greg Dobbs.

But they didn't get it, and the misfire had much to do with the Mariners' 2-1 loss to the red-hot Nationals before 39,108 at RFK Stadium.

"The difference in the game was they scored a run when they had the bases loaded with one out, and we didn't when we had a runner on third with one out," manager Mike Hargrove said.

A well-pitched game between starters Jamie Moyer and John Patterson came down to offensive execution in the seventh inning.

Mariners rookie shortstop Mike Morse had led off the top of the seventh with a single to left field, and then stole second. Borders, who knows how the game is supposed to be played, somehow fought off an inside pitch that was bearing in on his knees and hit the ball to first base, advancing Morse to third base.

Hargrove and bench coach Ron Hassey decided that Dobbs was their best weapon for the occasion.

"(Dave) Hansen is our No. 1 pinch-hitter, but it was the seventh inning," Hargrove said. "Dobbs has been in that situation before and done a nice job for us. I talked it over with Ronnie Hassey and we agreed that Dobber (was the best option)."

Dobbs, batting .156 overall, was 4-for-18 as a pinch-hitter, driving in four runs. He almost always puts the ball in play, usually in fair territory.

But this time he hit a popup behind the plate, and Nationals catcher Gary Bennett caught it for the second out of the inning. The scoring threat ended a few seconds later when Ichiro Suzuki flied out to left field.

After a long shower after the game, Dobbs was still seething as he went to his locker.

"I'm at wits end," he said. "I'm angry. There's no way (Patterson) gets me out. No way. I don't care if I'm hitting .040, I have to put the ball in play in that situation and drive in the run."

The self-flagellation continued.

"The chances I get are precious and fouling out is not an option," he said. "People tell me that (pinch-hitting) is the toughest job in baseball, but that's no excuse for doing what I did. I'm not going to hide behind that. I'm better than that."

Dobbs has had numerous conversations with Hansen, one of the premier pinch-hitters in the game, about the job. It always comes down to one at-bat. Do, or don't do.

And this time he didn't.

That was just the beginning of another sour ending for the Mariners, who lost their first series this month.

Another walk on the wild side by a Mariners reliever led to a run in the bottom of the seventh.

Right-hander J.J. Putz replaced Moyer, retired the first batter he faced, surrendered a single, and then walked two consecutive batters to load the bases. Jose Guillen delivered a run-scoring single to center field, giving the Nationals the run they needed to extend their winning streak to nine in a row.

"That's two nights in a row guys coming out of the bullpen had trouble throwing strikes," Hargrove said. "He couldn't find the strike zone after (Carlos) Baerga's hit and wasn't even close. He finally gathered himself, but it was a day late and a dollar short. And it was the ballgame."

On a night the Nationals' winning streak grew to nine, Ichiro Suzuki climbed to within one hit of 1,000 in his MLB career. On the edge of 1,000
Mariners at Nationals, June 11
With 694 Major League games under his belt, Ichiro Suzuki, batting .301, needs just one more hit to reach 1,000. According to research by Elias Sports Bureau, Chuck Klein is the only player (at least since 1933) to reach the 1,000-hit plateau before playing in his 700th Major League game. Klein, a Hall of Famer, recorded his 1,000th hit in his 683rd game.


One night after Seattle's bullpen walked five batters in the eighth inning, contributing to a six-run rally, Ichiro went 1-for-4 as the Mariners lost their first series since being swept by the Orioles on May 24-25-26.

Moyer pitched into, and out of trouble in three of the first four innings, before yielding a run in the bottom of the fifth. Christian Guzman led off with a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by pitcher John Patterson, stayed put when Moyer struck out Brad Wilkerson, and scored when Marlon Byrd's fly ball to right field fell a few inches short of Ichiro's extended glove.

On offense, Ichiro was one routine hop away from having his batting average fall below .300 for the first time in more than a year, and from the Mariners leaving another runner in scoring position.

There were two outs and Morse was on second base in the fifth inning when Ichiro hit a grounder to first baseman Nick Johnson. Ichiro, batting .2995 (rounded off to .300), would have been batting .298 if the ball had been caught, as Johnson would have stepped on the base for the inning-ending out.

But the ball hit something and caromed wildly over Johnson's right shoulder, and into right field for an RBI single. The hit extended Ichiro's hitting streak to six games -- one hit in each game -- and gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

It also bumped Ichiro's average to .302, and he still hasn't been below the .300 mark since May 12, 2004, when he was hitting .295. He went 2-for-4 the next game to reach .300 for the first time in '04 and batted .393 the remainder of the season, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old Major League single-season hit record with 262.

The four-time All-Star, and two-time AL batting champion, started this season with five consecutive two-hit games and batted a career best .356 in April. May was hit-and-miss as he batted .288, and June has been a swoon.

The bad-hop single was something Ichiro and the Mariners needed, but it wasn't enough to cool off the Major League's hottest team.

Source: http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/