Mariners 5 – Yankees 2
SEATTLE – One ball couldn’t be extracted from a glove. Another never made contact with leather. And far too many balls avoided the fat part of the Yankees’ bats.
Consequently, the AL East leaders jetted east last night having dropped a 5-2 decision to the Mariners yesterday in front of 46,086 at Safeco Field that stopped a six-game winning streak.
Don’t scan the boxscore for a Yankee error because there isn’t one. But two plays Jason Giambi and Robin Ventura didn’t make played a huge part in Roger Clemens’ numbers looking worse than he pitched.
“Aside from that four-run inning when we could have helped him a little bit more, I thought he pitched well,” Joe Torre said of Clemens, who suffered his first loss since June 15 and fell to 10-4.
To say Giambi and Ventura killed Clemens’ chance to win would be wrong since Mariners starter Joel Pineiro and three relievers limited the Yankees to a pair of runs and six hits. It was the first time in nine games the Yankees didn’t reach double digits in hits.
But Giambi and Ventura certainly had a hand in the Mariners scoring four runs in the third when they extended a 1-0 lead to 5-love.
After Edgar Martinez homered in the first off Clemens, Dan Wilson opened the second with a double to center. Jeff Cirillo, the No. 9 hitter, put down a bunt between the mound and first base that Giambi fielded. But when he turned to throw to Alfonso Soriano at first, Giambi didn’t get the ball out of the glove quickly and his underhand flip was late.
“It was stuck in the webbing,” Giambi said. “I wasn’t able to get a handle on it.”
Instead of having a runner at third and one out, Clemens faced Ichiro Suzuki with runners at the corners and not outs, walking him to load the bases. Mark McLemore whiffed and Clemens traded an out for a run when John Olerud flied to left and scored Wilson.
That brought up Martinez, the antique DH who started the day hitting .220 (18-for-42) against Clemens but went 3-for-4 against him. At 1-1 Martinez hit a one-hop smash to Ventura’s right. The third baseman got in position to make a play on the ball, but didn’t.
“I feel like I got there but I just missed it,” Ventura said of the two-run double.
Bret Boone followed with an RBI double and Pineiro had a 5-0 cushion to cruise on.
And he did. Giambi hit a laser into the first row of seats in right field for his 30th homer – and just his second in August – in the fourth. It wasn’t until Pineiro wild-pitched Soriano to second with two outs in the fifth that the Yankees hit with a runner in scoring position. Pineiro responded by fanning Derek Jeter on a 1-2 pitch.
Pinch-hitter John Vander Wal’s sacrifice fly off Jeff Nelson in the seventh accounted for the other run.
“We needed a good pitching performance and we got it,” Lou Piniella said of the 23-year-old Pineiro, who supplied 6 1/3 innings of five-hit, two-run pitching. He is 13-4.
As for Clemens, he reported absolutely no problem with his right groin after his third start since coming off the DL.
“I felt great,” Clemens said. “All in all, it was that one inning that beat us but from that point on I felt great.”
Clemens gave up five runs and nine hits in seven innings.
After Clemens surrendered five runs and 10 hits in his previous start against the light-hitting Royals, Torre was anxious to see Clemens face the Mariners.
“I was real pleased,” Torre said. “This reminded me of his first start [back].”