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Things are becoming quite unlikely for the Mariners.
It was unlike veteran left-hander Jamie Moyer yesterday to pitch 4-1/3 innings
in the Mariners' 8-2 loss to Oakland at Safeco Field. It has been more than
a year since Moyer has failed to make at least five innings. The last time was
in his first start a year ago, April 2 at Oakland, when he went 4-1/3 innings,
giving up seven hits and six runs in an 8-3 loss.
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It was unlike the Mariners to make an error yesterday, but first baseman Willie Bloomquist made one, and center fielder Randy Winn could have been charged with two more. Winn lost a seventh-inning fly ball by Eric Karros in the sun that was graciously ruled a double. Later in the inning, he bobbled Damian Miller's hard single that scored Karros from second.
It also is unlike the Mariners to get off to such a slow start, now 6-10, trailing
Oakland (10-6) by four games in the American League West. Over the past few
seasons, certainly all the ones this century, the Mariners have sprinted well
ahead in the division. They were 11-8 after 19 games against the West last season,
15-4 in 2002 and again 15-4 in their remarkable 116-win season in 2001.
But this season they seem to have moved their August fade to April. This weekend,
they close their opening 19-game stretch against the AL West rivals with three
games in Texas. Even a sweep won't give them a winning record.
"For how we've played, how we've pitched, how we've hit as a whole, if
we end this stretch 9-9 (actually best-case scenario is 9-10), I think we'd
be pretty happy about that," said Moyer, who is 1-2 with a 6.26 earned-run
average in four starts.
Moyer has been so reliable during his Mariners career that an early exit is
notable. He has pitched the Mariners into the sixth inning in 204 of his 237
starts with the team (86 percent). But twice in his four starts this season
he has failed to make it to the sixth.
Mariners manager Bob Melvin said it appeared Moyer didn't have the location
he needed. And the A's hitters took advantage.
"They took a good approach. They made him throw the ball over the plate;
they went the other way with him," Melvin said. "Two games ago he
made the adjustment and started pitching inside. I think he had a little more
trouble today locating inside."
Pitching coach Bryan Price said Moyer "never really got into a roll."
He said this week in their bullpen session he'll go back to his April 17 start
in which Moyer went eight innings and allowed three hits and one run against
Texas.
"He's gotten himself a little out of sorts," Price said. "We're
going to spend some time just being comfortable on the mound and making good
pitches."
Moyer said he thought he had made a good pitch to Eric Chavez in the first inning,
an outside changeup on a 1-2 count, but Chavez managed to sweep it out to right-center
for a three-run home run.
That created a significant uphill challenge for the Mariners' offense, which
produced only 18 runs in the seven-game homestand. The Mariners struck for a
couple runs in the fourth off A's starter Mark Mulder (2-1) on a sacrifice fly
by Dan Wilson and an RBI ground out by Jolbert Cabrera. That made it 4-2.
But the A's bounced right back in the top of the fifth with another run and
a three-run lead that seemed insurmountable.
"From the fifth inning on," Melvin said, "the game didn't have
that great a pace to it and not a whole lot of energy."
The A's kept adding on, starting with their run in the seventh that shouldn't
have happened. Karros lifted a fly ball to left-center that Winn tracked through
the bright sun. But at the last moment, Winn backed away from the ball and lost
it in the sun. Karros had one fortunate double.
After two outs, Oakland catcher Miller curled a liner over second base that
Winn charged. But in setting up to make his throw to the plate, he failed to
glove the ball. Karros kept running and scored, but a clean throw likely would
have nailed him. Because Karros was being waved around anyway, the official
scorer credited Miller with an RBI single, saving Winn an error.
The A's scored two more in the eighth on an RBI single by Jermaine Dye and a
fielding error by Bloomquist.
"It was unusual, but we're all human," Bloomquist said. "This
is still a great defensive ballclub."
It's also supposed to be pretty solid offensively, but the Mariners scratched
out just four hits. They entered the game ranked 19th in the majors in hitting
with a .255 average and are tied for 27th with just 11 home runs.
"We do have a good offensive team here," said shortstop Rich Aurilia,
who signed as a free agent. "One of these days we're going to click and
be hot for a few weeks or a month or so. I know people are capable.
"I came here because I know these guys have the chance to win."