News
Mariners succumb to sea of homers
Fister experiences first big league loss vs. Royals
By Christian Caple / MLB.com
08/28/09 2:14 AM ET
SEATTLE -- Who knew it'd be the Kansas City Royals that would bring Doug Fister back to Earth? Impressive in his first three starts with the Mariners, Fister allowed only five hits to the Royals on Thursday -- but three of them were home runs and the team with the worst record in the American League snapped a three-game Seattle winning streak with an 8-4 win in front of 19,345 at Safeco Field. Fister had given up just five earned runs total and two home runs in three starts and a relief appearance since being called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Aug. 8. In addition, he had allowed 16 hits in 20 1/3 innings, better than his Tacoma average of more than one hit per frame. But against one of the weakest offenses in the Majors, he couldn't keep the ball in the yard, and didn't get enough support from his offense to overcome the first real welcome-to-the-bigs outing of his rookie career. "He's shown that he can get awfully good hitters out when he's right," manager Don Wakamatsu said. "[Against] a club that's not quite as good as the Yankees, they can hurt you just as well as anybody else." The first homer Fister allowed wouldn't have happened had the Mariners turned a potential double play ball just a tad quicker. With a runner on first base and one out, Mark Teahen hit a ground ball to Jose Lopez, who threw to Jack Wilson at second to record the second out of the inning. But Teahen beat Wilson's throw to first by about a half-step, prolonging the inning for catcher Brayan Pena to tuck a home run ball just over the fence and just inside the right-field foul pole to give the Royals a 2-0 lead. Former Mariner Yuniesky Betancourt made it 3-0 with a long drive over the left-field fence in the fifth, and a two-run shot by Alberto Callaspo in the sixth pushed Kansas City ahead 5-2 after RBI singles by Kenji Johjima and Franklin Gutierrez had cut the deficit to one run in the fifth. For a pitcher who lacks overwhelming velocity and therefore relies on arm angle and good location on his breaking pitches, Fister didn't have either in his first big league loss. "He got hurt on all three of his pitches today -- fastball, curveball and changeup," Wakamatsu said. "So it kind of tells you that he didn't quite have the angle. I thought he competed out there, but if your velocity isn't above normal, then you do have to be pretty good at what you do. And today was kind of in and out for me." Said Fister of what went wrong: "It was pretty much everything. I've just really got to focus on keeping the ball down." Reliever Shawn Kelley yielded a fourth Royals homer, a blast by David DeJesus to right field in the seventh that followed a two-out walk and blew the game open. Fister wasn't all bad -- he set the Royals down in order in the first, third and fourth innings -- but his couple of missed locations cost him. "The starting pitcher for them was pretty good, keeping us offbalance and stuff like that, but when he missed we were able to make him pay for it," DeJesus said. "When he missed up with a couple of changeups or curveballs, we were able to drive it out of the park." It was just a sloppy game all around for the Mariners, who were on the bad end of a couple close calls at first base and didn't help themselves any when given chances to get out of innings. A wild pitch and an infield single from Josh Anderson with two outs allowed Kansas City to tack on another run in the ninth. "Trying to replay that game back in your mind, there are some things that stick out," Wakamatsu said. "A couple walks followed by home runs, a wild pitch and then an infield single, and you kind of tally that up, look at about five runs that end up costing you where you're not in a ballgame." Jack Wilson's first home run as a Mariner provided somewhat of a bright spot and made the score a little more respectable in the bottom of the ninth. "It's nice," Wilson said. "But I wish it had come sooner in the game when it meant something." After sweeping three games from Oakland with solid pitching and timely hitting, the Mariners had neither in this four-game series opener against the lowly Royals. Kansas City, obviously, had both. Royals starter Kyle Davies pitched a whole lot better than his 4-9 record and 6.12 ERA would indicate. He gave up just five hits -- four of them singles -- in six innings, escaping a runners-on-second-and-third situation with nobody out in the sixth by getting a popout and a strikeout with the Royals still leading by just three. "No matter who you're playing, you've got to play the game well to win them," Wakamatsu said. "And we didn't tonight."Christian Caple is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
