The 2010 Mariners: Slow, but aggressive. That’s the way one of my friends put it while watching Friday night’s game, in which both Casey Kotchman and Jose Lopez were thrown out at home.
David Pauley records his first win as a Seattle Mariner, with seven hits and two runs while walking no batters. In former Mariner news, R.A. Dickey pitched a one-hitter to help the Mets beat the Phillies. I’m sure other Mariners fans would agree with me when I say that’s a bit crazy.
Full recap from the Sports Network:
Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) – David Pauley notched his first career win with six solid innings, and the Seattle Mariners snapped a seven-game road losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
Pauley (1-4) allowed just two runs and seven hits while fanning five without walking a batter for the Mariners, who are 3-1 under new manager Daren Brown. David Aardsma locked down his 23rd save with a flawless ninth.
Ichiro Suzuki had two hits and scored once, while Russell Branyan and Casey Kotchman each drove in a run in the win, Seattle’s fourth in five contests.
Shin-Soo Choo went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Indians, losers in five of six. Chris Gimenez also drove in a run, while Asdrubal Cabrera added a pair of hits.
Fausto Carmona (11-10) pitched well, but was dealt the loss after yielding three runs — two earned — on nine hits and a walk in six-plus innings.
A Cleveland error in the sixth helped the Mariners move ahead for good.
Jose Lopez led off the frame with a single, although he was thrown out at the plate on Franklin Gutierrez’s double. Gutierrez moved to third on a Casey Kotchman groundout, and Adam Moore sent a ground ball toward the second baseman Jason Donald.
Donald fumbled with it and wasn’t able to recover in time to retire Moore, which allowed Gutierrez to cross the plate with the go-ahead run, giving the Mariners a 3-2 lead.
The Indians never put together a serious threat down the stretch, failing to advance a runner past first in any of the final four innings.
The teams traded runs in the early going.
Suzuki led off the game with an infield single. He stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Branyan’s ground ball to second.
The Indians answered in the second on Donald and Chris Gimenez’s back-to-back doubles, the latter serving as a run-scoring hit to tie the game.
Branyan doubled leading off the fourth and moved to third when Gutierrez grounded out for the second out. Kotchman followed with a sharp ground ball toward Carmona, who had the ball deflect off his glove. Donald was unable to handle the ball cleanly, allowing Branyan to score on the infield single.
Cleveland, though, was able to tie the game again on Choo’s two-out RBI single in the fifth.