Mariners lose a close one as offensive struggles

There was no decision to be had for Michael Pineda against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, though the 22-year-old threw another gem to provide more evidence of hope for the Seattle Mariners’ future.

But the cause of their 2-1 loss to the Orioles at Safeco Field was more about the past than anything else. And the present, too, as in Seattle’s continued failure to spark consistent offensive rallies.

Former Mariner Adam Jones, the centerpiece of the team’s trade for Erik Bedard prior to the 2008 season, ensured that Baltimore would not leave Seattle without a win, first making a sensational, over-the-shoulder catch against the wall in dead center in the fourth inning before belting the deciding home run in the eighth.

Jones added a pair of singles, too, shining on a day when few others did.

“Today was his game,” Mariners shortstop Brendan Ryan said. “We just didn’t have a spark, didn’t get anything going.”

Ryan repeated several variations of that theme while speaking to reporters in the clubhouse – that yes, it’s nice to win two of three in the series, but that the Mariners simply can’t continue to survive with this formula of scoring one or two runs and hoping their pitching can bail them out.

Pineda did his best to, certainly. The only Baltimore base runner who reached scoring position against Pineda was J.J. Hardy – he gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead with a solo homer with one out in the fourth, then singled in the seventh and moved to second on a two-out walk to Mark Reynolds.

Eric Wedge took a visit to the mound, spoke with Pineda for a moment and opted to let the rookie face No. 9 hitter Robert Andino with two on and two outs. Pineda had thrown 99 pitches to that point, meaning he would almost certainly eclipse his career high of 103 if allowed to remain in the game.

“I was going to give him every opportunity,” Wedge said. “He was still strong. As we mentioned, we were going to give him every opportunity to work through that.”

It turned out to be a good decision. Andino battled Pineda to a full count before whiffing at the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Pineda’s day done after seven innings, 106 pitches and seven strikeouts.

“Right-handed hitter, it’s a little guy,” Pineda said. “No challenge.”

Three of the six hits he allowed were accompanied by broken bats.

Miguel Olivo scored Seattle’s only run in the second inning when he singled, tagged up and moved to second base on a deep flyout by Franklin Gutierrez, then scored on Jack Wilson’s two-out single after plowing Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters on a play at the plate.

Olivo would have had a second hit – at least a double, probably a triple – had Jones not made his miraculous catch in the fourth inning.

Olivo drilled a pitch from Orioles starter Brian Matusz to dead center field, looking for all the world as if he’d be in scoring position to start the inning. That is, until Jones turned his back and raced toward the wall, snagging Olivo’s fly over his shoulder as he leapt into the fence.

Sprawled on the ground, Jones held his glove skyward, Olivo forced back to the dugout in disbelief. It was a web gem of the highest order.

“If that ball hits the wall,” Ryan lamented, “he’s on third base, probably.”

Asked if he could have hit the ball any harder, Olivo offered, “I think not.”

“I don’t think anybody in the ballpark thought he was going to get that one,” Wedge marveled.

Jones struck later, too, taking reliever Jamey Wright deep to left field with one out in the eighth inning to account for the final margin. Wright said he threw a sinker that simply didn’t sink.

“Couldn’t have put it on a tee any better for him,” Wright said afterward.

Baltimore offered the Mariners no such favors. They finished with only five hits despite facing a pitcher making his first start of the season, moving just one runner to scoring position after Olivo’s run in the second.

So yes, the Mariners have still won 11 of 14 and 12 of 16. They’re still above .500. But it’s not lost on Ryan – or anyone else in the clubhouse – that this is a dangerous way for a Major League team to live.

“We’ve got to come out and swing the bats, because one run, that’s not fair to Pineda,” Ryan said.

“We don’t want to win like that. … It’s just too many nail-biters. It’d be nice to draw blood first and stomp on their neck and run away with it.”

Wright took the loss, obviously, though the consensus is that it’s asking a bit much of a bullpen to throw an eternal string of zeroes on the board each and every time it’s called upon in a tight game. And those are the only kind of games the Mariners seem to play anymore.

“That means they’ve got to be perfect,” Ryan said of the pen. “That’s not fair to them.”

Wedge is sick of it, too. And it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Michael Saunders, now hitting .168, stays with the team much longer while Mike Carp continues to tear the cover off the ball at Triple-A Tacoma. The Mariners had three players in Wednesday’s lineup hitting .168 or worse — Saunders, Mike Wilson and Luis Rodriguez. All are part-timers, though no better solution for their hitting woes can be found on the Mariners’ 25-man roster.

“I just want to see us do a better job making adjustments, recognizing why we’re not having success we need to have in different areas of our club, and react to it and be better with it,” he said.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to be extreme with your adjustments. You’ve got to be willing to take some risks. What you can’t do is go up there and do the same damn thing over and over again and expect different results.”

Source:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/baseball/2011/06/01/mariners-lose-a-close-one-as-offensive-struggles-still-cause-for-concern/ Sharing is sexy