 07/28/2002 9:14 pm ET
Ichiro: My worst game ever
By Jim Street / MLB.com
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SEATTLE -- Ichiro Suzuki takes great pride in the way he plays the game, and loathes the times when his performance doesn't meet his own high standards.
The Mariners' series finale against the Anaheim Angels on Sunday afternoon happened to be one of those days.
The reigning AL Most Valuable Player sat in front his locker at SAFECO Field, his left arm scraped and bloodied, lamenting the way he played in Seattle's 1-0 loss that sent the Mariners back into second place in the AL West, percentage points behind the Angels.
"Any loss is big for us," he said, "but for myself, it is one of the toughest losing games of my professional career. I could say that this is the worst game I ever played, because what I have done affected the team's performance."
Ichiro played a significant part in the loss -- failing to execute a sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning of a scoreless deadlock and then compounding the issue by getting thrown out when he tried to advance on a pitch that bounced away from catcher Jose Molina.
"Those are plays I must execute well," Ichiro said, "and I'm always upset with myself when I don't execute the way I am supposed to. Those are mistakes that bother me."
Ichiro Suzuki / RF |
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Maybe so, but to put the blame firmly on his own shoulders is going a little overboard because he had a lot of company in his misery. Ichiro went hitless for the second straight game after going on an 11-game hitting streak, but by no means was he the only Mariner who didn't get to first base on Sunday.
Seattle (63-42) fired blanks against Angels' veteran right-hander Kevin Appier, just as they did against rookie right-hander John Lackey in Friday night's series opener. An offense that sure could use a hot bat got two hits from shortstop Carlos Guillen and one apiece from Bret Boone (bunt single) and Ruben Sierra -- a swinging-bunt hit to third base.
The Mariners had 15 hits in the three-game series and scored three runs.
Manager Lou Piniella chose not to even talk about Sunday's game, closing his door to reporters.
He probably would have said a few things about the ongoing sporadic offense and how well veteran left-hander Jamie Moyer pitched.
Moyer accepted his team-leading eighth no-decision of the season after holding the Angels scoreless over eight innings. The way he and Appier -- a pair of savvy Major League veterans -- were going at each other, this game might as well have been played at the OK Corral.
"It was a fun game to be in," Moyer said. "Kevin threw the ball awfully well and it seemed as the game went along, the team that scored first was going to win. It very well could have been decided by one swing.
"It's a lot of fun being involved in a game where every pitch means something, every out means something," he added. "I don't like being on the losing end of a game like this, but it was the kind of game baseball has gotten away from a little bit. You see a lot more high-scoring games than the kind we had today."
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Jamie Moyer
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This was the third time Moyer has been involved in a 1-0 game this season. He lost a 1-0 decision to the Devil Rays on May 21 at SAFECO field and received a no-decision on June 26 when he pitched seven scoreless innings against the Athletics, who scored a run in the eighth inning and won.
So in reality, the 39-year-old left-hander who has the best winning percentage in the Major Leagues over the past six seasons (95-44) should have a better record than 10-4. Moyer lowered his ERA to 2.86, compared to the 3.43 ERA he had last season when he went 20-6 and became the oldest player in MLB history to reach the 20-win plateau for the first time.
"This is a game he should have won," said catcher Dan Wilson of Moyer, who retired 20 of the first 22 batters he faced. "But both pitchers had great stuff. They were able to muster a run and we didn't."
Moyer wasn't in the game when the game's only run scored.
"Nothing," said Moyer when asked what was said about him possibly pitching the ninth inning.
He nearly came out of the game with two outs in the eighth inning when the Angels put runners on first and third with two outs. Moyer seemingly had ended the inning with the go-ahead run at second base when David Eckstein hit a slow grounder between first and second.
"I hesitated for a split second because I thought the ball was going right to Johnny," he said. "I didn't move as quickly as he (Eckstein) and he beat me to the bag."
Moyer got the next batter to ground out and then turned the outcome over to right-handed closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, who surrendered the game's only run on two singles, wild pitch and a sacrifice fly.
Mariners Log
The upcoming schedule favors the Mariners. While they play the Tigers and Indians this week, the Angels play the Red Sox and Yankees. Detroit and Cleveland are a combined 36 games under .500 (85-121) while New York and Boston are 46 games over .500 (126-80). ...Bret Boone extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a bunt single in the fourth inning. ...The Mariners have been shut out five times this season -- all of them at home. ...Left-hander Jamie Moyer didn't allow a run for the fifth time in his last 12 starts, but he has only a 7-2 record to show for it. He has allowed 17 earned runs in 93 1/3 innings over that span.
Jim Street covers the Mariners for MLB.com and can be reached at jim.street@mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of MLB or its clubs.
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