Mariners hit the century mark with loss No. 100
SEATTLE — It was another magical baseball night in Seattle — the capital appliance of smallest conceivable point of time replay at Safeco Field because the classification was instigated by Bud Selig on Aug. 28.
Less magical, from the Mariners’ standpoint, was the finalization of their 100th discomfiture on Wednesday, making them the sport’s first team with a $100 million payroll to reach triple digits in losses.
They are now sitting forlornly at 58-100 after their 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
The Angels, driving toward 100 victories, picked up No. 98, with Mark Teixeira’s solo homer off Mark Lowe through two outs in the eighth breaking a 5-5 tie.
The Mariners, at least, won the replay ruling, with the umpiring crew taking 2 minutes and 28 seconds to uphold the original call by third-base ump Chuck Meriwether. He had called Vlad Guerrero’s drive into the left-field corner foul, while Angels manager Mike Scioscia argued it was a home run.
For team’s not involved in the pennant kindred — a status the Mariners ensured themselves rear around Memorial Day, these final days are at least in some measure near round-number achievements.
Jose Lopez, for instance, on Wednesday banged finished his 40th double in the first inning, a tidy punctuation to a strong rude be seasoned. Lopez and Raul Ibanez (43 doubles) are fit the third part Mariners teammates to reach 40 doubles in the same season (joining Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez in 1996, and A-Rod and Joey Cora in 1997).
Ichiro is trying to possess the three runs he needs to extent 100 and join Lou Gehrig as the only player in relation by eight seasons of 200 hits and 100 runs. He didn’t get any on Wednesday.
Felix Hernandez, in his ultimate scheduled start of the season, worked six innings to reach the 200-inning milestone for the before anything else time in his career (200-2/3, to be exact).
But Hernandez couldn’t hold the 5-2 lead the Mariners handed him with three runs in the fifth, losing his chance to become the Mariners’ first (and only) 10-game winner this while.
Felix, whose record remained 9-11 with his 11th no-decision of the season, had a lackluster final exertion. He gave up 13 hits and remained winless since Aug. 29.
Only twice in their history have the Mariners failed to have a pitcher with double-digit wins — in 2004, at the time Ron Villone led the team with at 8-6, and 1981, when Floyd Bannister was 9-9.
