Mariners salvage finale

07/19/2006
NEW YORK -- By the time Gil Meche emptied his arsenal of pitches on Johnny Damon on Wednesday, the Yankees leadoff hitter was still standing in the batters box, looking none the worse for wear.
Already 10 pitches into a vexing at-bat in the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium, Meche had no luck in running a fastball past Damon, nor did he have much success in trying to tempt Damon with a tantalizing slider, either.
It almost got to the point where Damon was simply flipping his bat at pitches he was not keen about, fouling them off until he got something he wanted.
"Your mind goes a little blank," Meche said. "When you throw seven, eight, nine pitches to a hitter, you don't know what to throw next. You get to a point where you just throw it down the middle."
So that's what Meche did, he floated a changeup right down the middle that Damon didn't get much of as he flew out to left for what would become an important out in Seattle's 3-2 victory over New York.
Meche's trying sixth inning -- where he threw 36 of his 112 pitches -- became the perfect metaphor for the team's six-game road trip through Toronto and New York that ended the same way it started, though there were plenty of hurdles in between.
Seattle (45-50) went 2-4 against the Blue Jays and Yankees, though all four of the losses were decided by two runs or less. To make matters worse -- or better, if you want to see how close the Mariners were to going, say, 4-2 -- three losses were extra-inning setbacks.
Much like Meche's duel with Damon, nothing came easy for the Mariners, who return to Safeco Field on Friday but not before enjoying a day off that will give Mariners manager Mike Hargrove's bullpen a much-needed rest.
Hargrove squeezed 2 2/3 innings out of rookie Mark Lowe, Rafael Soriano and his closer J.J. Putz to get Seattle its 45th victory of the season. Lowe -- who continues to impress by the minute -- got the last two outs of the seventh for his first Major League victory.
Soriano and Putz -- both who threw the day before in the Mariners' 5-4 loss in 11 innings -- weren't even going to pitch, but Hargrove needed them desperately to finish what Meche started.
"It was a game when you're on the edge of your seat the whole game," Hargrove said. "This has been a tough road trip. One break in any of those games and we could have won four of six. But these guys showed up. After last night it was good to see them show up."
It wasn't easy. The loss Tuesday -- well, early Wednesday morning -- came roughly 13 or so hours before the start of Wednesday's afternoon game on another hot day in the Bronx.
What the Mariners needed most was for Meche to work deep into the game. The way that the right-hander started, it looked like Seattle's relief corps might get the whole day off.
Meche -- who hasn't lost since May 30, a stretch of five victories and four no-decisions -- retired the first 13 hitters that he faced. He showed good command of his fastball, slider and changeup even though his best pitch, the curveball, worked infrequently.
"He came out throwing 95 and kept that up the whole game," Hargrove said of Meche, who was denied a chance at his 10th victory. "I started to go out there in the sixth ... to give him a breather. Sometimes, you have to let guys go. He didn't back down."
Meche allowed his first run in that sixth inning when Derek Jeter ripped an RBI single to center field to score Nick Green, who walked to start the inning.
Meche started the seventh inning, but departed quickly after allowing an infield single to Alex Rodriguez on a ball that glanced off his glove and then an RBI double to Andy Phillips to tie the score.
Hargrove went to his bullpen for left-hander George Sherrill, who got the only batter of the inning he faced out when pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo dropped down a sacrifice bunt that put runners at second and third base.
Enter Lowe, the unflappable rookie from Houston who, with now four games of Major League experience, struck out pinch-hitter Bernie Williams and got Kelly Stinnett on a routine fly ball to right-center field to end the inning and preserve the tie.
"My job is to get two outs and leave that guy at third," said Lowe, who started the season at Class A Inland Empire before making his way quickly through the Mariners' Minor League system. "That's what I did. I just focus on making good pitches and getting batters out."
Lowe's brief but successful outing, coupled with Soriano and Putz's work, gave the Mariners' offense time to chase Yankees starter Randy Johnson in the eighth inning, not that they had too much luck before then.
Johnson, the former Mariner, allowed solo runs in the first and fourth innings -- the last on Richie Sexson's 19th home run -- but little else, as the left-hander struck out 11 and walked one in eight innings.
It was in the eighth inning when Seattle scored the go-ahead run using what amounts to the polar opposite of Sexson's moon shot of a home run.
Enter Ichiro, who had two hits to that point, both clean singles. Facing Johnson, Ichiro topped a ball about four feet out in front of home plate that looked like a routine out in the making.
But Ichiro is no ordinary runner, as the legged out an infield single as Stinnett's throw to first base arrived a split-second late. Ichiro then stole his second base of the day and went to third base when Stinnett's throw skipped into center field.
Left-handed hitting Raul Ibanez then got enough of a Johnson fastball to send it out to left field, far enough for Ichiro to tag-up and scoring the go-ahead run easily.
"He's explosive. He really is," New York manager Joe Torre of Ichiro. "He does a lot of things to distract, make the catcher hurry the throw. Good arm. He's the full package, there's no question."

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