up the no-hit bid of Boston's Jon Lester with a two-run homer in the
sixth inning, Seattle added three more runs off Lester in the eighth
inning, and the Mariners rallied for a 5-1 win over the Red Sox on
Saturday night.
One batter after Lester's chance at a
perfect game ended when center fielder Eric Patterson dropped Jack
Wilson's one-out liner in the sixth, Saunders ripped a 2-2 curve for his
eighth homer of the season. It was the second homer by a lefty this
season off Lester, who was untouchable for the first five innings.
Instead, his one mistake to Saunders,
and Boston's inability to mount any offense against Seattle's pitching,
sent Lester (11-5) to his second straight loss. David Ortiz accounted
for all of the Boston offense with a solo homer leading off the fourth
inning.
Seattle then added some insurance runs
in the eighth. Milton Bradley tripled for only Seattle's second hit off
Lester to lead off the inning, nearly stumbling and falling rounding
second. Bradley scored on Jack Wilson's squeeze bunt for a two-run lead.
Saunders added another hit later in the inning with a comebacker off
Lester's spikes and scored on Chone Figgins' double. Ichiro Suzuki also
scored when Jose Lopez was hit by reliever Manny Delcarmen's pitch with
the bases loaded.
Garrett Olson then finished off the
ninth for his first career save, securing the victory for Chris Seddon
(1-0). It was Seddon's first career win in his 10th major league
appearance.
Lester was rolling from the start,
striking out Suzkui to start the bottom of the first. It was just the
start of five dominating innings against Seattle and its meager offense.
He added two more strikeouts in the
second, two more in the third, then set down Suzuki (looking), Figgins
(looking) and Franklin Gutierrez (swinging) in the fourth.
Of the first 16 batters Lester faced,
10 struck out and the other six were putouts on the infield.
Batter No. 17 started Lester's
ever-so-brief downfall.
Wilson got a 1-2 fastball that Lester
left over the plate and lined it into left-center field. Patterson
quickly raced over and was in position in time, but appeared to close
his glove a moment too soon and the liner glanced off the top of his
glove and fell to the turf. Wilson hustled into second on the error.
Finally with a runner on base, Lester
fell behind 2-1 before a cut fastball for a called strike that evened
the count against Saunders at 2-2. The curve ball Saunders hit 368 feet
into the right field seats was the same pitch Saunders struck out
swinging on in the third inning.
Lester finished with a career-high 13
strikeouts and one walk. He gave up four hits and threw 124 pitches.
Seattle starter David Pauley pitched
admirably, but couldn't keep his pitch count down and was done after 5 2/3 innings and 97 pitches. While Pauley gave up a number of hard hit
balls for outs, his only major mistake was Ortiz's homer on the first
pitch of the fourth inning, his 19th homer of the season.
Pauley gave up just five hits and
struck out five, but he remained winless in his eight career starts.
Figgins received a mixed reception a
day after his dugout scuffle with manager Don Wakamatsu. The second
baseman heard a smattering of boos when he was introduced for his first
at-bat. But he was lauded with a loud ovation after making a backhanded
stop and spinning throw to get Boston's Kevin Cash in the third.
Notes
Red Sox manager Terry Francona
said injured C Victor Martinez will catch in the bullpen during
Sunday's game. Francona said it's the next step in getting Martinez back
from his fractured left thumb. … Lester's previous career-high for
strikeouts was 12 last year against Toronto. … Seattle is now one
victory shy of 2,500 in franchise history.