Print
E-Mail
tool name
close
tool goes here
Wednesday, Apr. 09, 2008
Washburn, Burke lead M's to victory
Backup catcher Jamie Burke hits a three-run homer as Seattle beats Tampa Bay, 7-1
By RYAN DIVISH; The News Tribune
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It’s been a while since the Seattle Mariners’ fortunes weren’t hanging on every pitch in the final three innings of a game. If it seems like the Mariners only play in one-run nail-biters, well, it’s not far off base. Coming into Wednesday’s game at Tropicana Field, Seattle had played eight games, with five of them decided by two runs or fewer. They only won two of them.
Maybe that’s why the Mariners’ 7-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays felt so relaxing. The winning run wasn’t in scoring position and the opponent’s best hitter wasn’t up in the bottom of the ninth.
Nope, the late innings of the Mariners’ fourth win of the season, and second straight against Tampa, were fairly serene and uneventful.
That’s not say a nondescript laugher was a guarantee. After all, it seems with this Mariners team, every opportunity to tack on runs and put opponents away early is wasted.
However it was the throwing arm of left-fielder Raul Ibañez and the home run power of backup catcher Jamie Burke that created some breathing room in this one.
Up 4-1, Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn was cruising along, spotting his two-seam and four-seam fastballs along both corners of the plate to frustrate Tampa Bay hitters. The only exception was third baseman Willy Aybar, who came into the game hitting a cool .200 and then doubled off down the third-base line off Washburn in the third inning and led off with a double in the seventh.
“Aybar gave me trouble the whole game,” Washburn said. “I couldn’t get him out.”
For a moment, it looked like Aybar would be stranded in the seventh as Washburn got pop-ups from Shawn Riggans and Justin Ruggiano. But No. 9 hitter Jason Bartlett slapped a single to left and with two outs it seemed an inevitability that Aybar would score.
Ibañez fielded the hit on one bounce and threw hard to the plate. By most accounts, Ibañez does not have a great throwing arm, and his detractors wouldn’t even label it average. But his throw was online and skipped hard off the turf and right into the glove of Burke, who blocked the sliding Aybar from the plate and made the easy tag.
“It was on a hop and right at Raul and he made a perfect throw,” Burke said. “I tried to block the plate because I knew we’d have a play.”
Had Ibañez not made such a good throw, the game suddenly gets a little more interesting with just a two-run deficit and a runner at second and the top of the Tampa order due up.
“That could have been a big momentum swing there and put them right back in the ball game,” Washburn admitted.
Burke made sure the game would get no closer, launching a three-run home run to left off reliever J.P. Howell in the seventh to make it 7-1.
“I knew I hit it good, but I haven’t hit enough in the big leagues to know if it was gone,” Burke said.
With runners on first and second, Howell, a lefty, kept trying to bust Burke on his hands in hopes of coaxing a ground-ball double play.
“I set my sights inside,” Burke said.
But with every pitch, Howell came a little closer to the plate. Burke almost got him a pitch earlier, hitting one plenty deep that just hooked left of the left-field foul pole. But the next pitch was just a little farther out over the plate.
“I was able to keep it fair,” Burke said. “I don’t know how I did it.”
Burke hit his first home run in the last game of last season, so this doubled his career total.
A 7-1 lead was plenty, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Sean Green combined for a quiet final three innings of relief.
Washburn did most of the work for the win, going seven innings and allowing just one run on six hits. With the exception of the inning he gave up the run and the Aybar trouble in the seventh, he stayed trouble-free, thanks to solid location with his fastball, particularly inside pitches to right-handers.
“That’s the whole key to me being successful,” Washburn said. “I have to establish that half of the plate to be successful. Today I was able to do that.”
Washburn also used a snappy slider against lefties and continually mixed his pitches effectively.
In his last start, Washburn was taken deep into counts by nearly every hitter. But against the aggressive Rays hitters, he used their willingness to swing early to get two- and three-pitch outs.
“Watching them the night before, I knew if I could make some good pitches early, I could get some outs,” he said.
He did just that. Washburn (1-1) had two 1-2-3 innings and only faced more than four hitters in an inning once.
“He really had them off-balance,” McLaren said. “He was extremely solid.”
