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Thursday, May. 08, 2008
Orioles rally in ninth, beat M's
Baltimore scores three times in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 victory over Seattle
By RYAN DIVISH; The News Tribune
BALTIMORE – At first glance, the blame for Seattle’s 3-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles seems logically directed toward manager John McLaren and his faith in an untested bullpen. After all, it was McLaren’s decision to take out Felix Hernandez, who had just cruised through eight innings while allowing no runs and five hits. He turned over a 2-0 lead to the bullpen in the bottom of ninth.
But instead of securing the first road win of the season for the Mariners (2-4), the bullpen burped it away when Eric O’Flaherty allowed two runs on two hits, and Mark Lowe (0-1) wild-pitched the tying run home and gave up the winning single to Luis Fernandez.
“It was a tough loss,” McLaren said. “Felix did a great job, but we just couldn’t hang on. We got the matchups we wanted and it just didn’t work.”
Well, not necessarily.
A whole set of circumstances led to the decision to remove Hernandez, the biggest being Hernandez admitting to pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre he was tired after eight innings.
“Mel asked him, ‘How do you feel?’ and Felix said he wasn’t 100 percent,” McLaren said. “Mel told him three out of the next four hitters coming up were lefty, so (Felix) said go ahead and make the change.”
Hernandez confirmed the whole decision-making process.
“I felt a little bit tired,” Hernandez said. “In the eighth, I left a couple balls up in the strike zone. I didn’t want to make a big mistake in the ninth. So if we had the lefty fresh, bring in the lefty.”
It’s not something you are going to hear from Hernandez too often. But because he was bumped forward a day to replace Erik Bedard, who was scratched from the start with a sore left hip, Hernandez came in having thrown a bullpen session just two days before. The sequence left him with a little less stamina.
“You know me, I don’t want to come out of the game,” Hernandez said. “But when I’m tired I don’t want to make a mistake. I didn’t expect to throw eight innings with one day’s rest.”
Had he been on his regular program, Hernandez said he would have fought for and been easily been able to pitch the ninth with no problems.
“Felix was great,” McLaren said. “He did his job today.”
With a healthy bullpen, there would have been even less trepidation for McLaren, who could have just handed the ball to the reliable Putz. But with him on the disabled list, McLaren played the matchups, going with O’Flaherty – his left-handed specialist – to open the ninth with lefties Nick Markakis and Aubrey Huff scheduled to be sandwiched around right-handed hitter Kevin Millar for the Orioles (4-1).
O’Flaherty was able to retire only one of three lefties he faced. Markakis led off with a double down the third-base line, moved to third on Millar’s ground out and later scored on Huff’s ground ball to second.
“At that point, I’m really not even concerned about Markakis at third, I just wanted to keep the tying run off base,” O’Flaherty said.
But he didn’t.
Lefty Luke Scott, who has worn out Mariners’ pitching in this series, picked up his seventh hit in eight at-bats, singling to right to put the tying run aboard.
McLaren then called on Lowe to try to get the final out, but Jay Payton’s soft ground ball skidded past the outstretched glove of second baseman Jose Lopez for a single. Adam Jones who, was pinch-running for Scott, advanced to third.
Lowe (0-1) then walked Ramon Hernandez, with ball four thrown wildly in the dirt past catcher Jamie Burke.
“It hit the left-foot hole (in the) left-handed batter’s box and just shot straight up in the air,” Burke said. “I wished I could have knocked it down, but it hit the hole and took a wild bounce over my head.”
Jones trotted across with the tying run. The Mariners still had a chance to salvage the game, but Luis Hernandez fought off a 2-2 count and dropped a soft liner in the outfield gap between center and right to drive in Payton for the Orioles’ third straight win over the Mariners.
“When it comes down to it, I had to get one out and I didn’t do it,” Lowe said.
The sequence was painful for Putz, who was watching in the dugout.
“They are in a position right now that they are not supposed to be in, and wouldn’t be in,” Putz said referring to his rib injury. “I don’t know how many times either one of those guys have been in a situation like this.” But until Putz returns, it could happen again.
“I don’t know what we could have done different,” McLaren said. “We got the matchups we wanted. It just didn’t work.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 blogs.thenewstribune.com/mariners
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