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Beltre has mock rages about Felix not throwing him fastballs. Felix tips his cap as Beltre heads back to his bench after each out.
On Sunday, on a 1-2 fastball, Beltre got bragging rights for the day, hitting a long two-run home run that was the key blow in the Texas Rangers’ 3-0 victory over the Seattle Mariners and Hernandez.
“I was ahead in the count and I tried to go in. He hit it. Hard,” Felix said. “He always talks. He got me. What can I say? I’ll see him again in Texas next week.”
Beltre’s 27th home run this season was the most dramatic contact made Sunday, a day when the Mariners made too little to mount any serious charge against Matt Harrison and the Texas bullpen.
“We got to their starting pitcher (Saturday. We didn’t do a very good job today,” manager Eric Wedge said.
“The left-handers were waving at some breaking balls out of the zone. We weren’t on the fastball like we needed to be on the fastball. When we were in hitter’s counts, which is something we’ve been working hard to do, we were just off a little bit.”
The result? The Mariners were shut out for the 14th time in 2011.
No, they won’t lose 100 games, but their 89th loss of the season had an all-too-familiar feel to it, and included another 14 strikeouts.
That’s 1,201 for the season, and with 10 games to go the Mariners are on pace to blow past the American League single-season strikeout record (1,292) – this for a team with 100 home runs.
“We never really got anything going,” Wedge said.
True enough.
Of their six hits, three were two-out singles. They got a leadoff double in the sixth inning when Luis Rodriguez drove a ball to the wall in right-center field, but the Mariners couldn’t even get him to third.
With the heart of the order up, Dustin Ackley, Miguel Olivo and Mike Carp each struck out.
Not good outs. Not productive outs. Just the kind that get a team shut out.
Hernandez blanked Texas the first three innings, though for a few minutes in the third a Safeco Field crowd of 21,479 thought the Mariners were behind, 2-0.
That’s because Ian Kinsler hit a long drive toward the left field foul pole that almost everyone in the ballpark thought was foul – but third base umpire Brian Gorman called “fair.”
Wedge argued, the umpires talked among themselves and then went to review the video, which was conclusive.
Foul ball.
So Felix got to the fourth inning of a scoreless game, then gave up a single to Elvis Andrus, who pushed his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games. Two outs later, Hernandez jumped ahead in the count to Beltre, then threw a pitch the third baseman could handle.
“Stupid pitch,” Beltre said with a laugh in the Texas clubhouse.
Felix wouldn’t have argued the point.
“You’ve got to make good pitches,” Hernandez said. “If you don’t, they hurt you. I respect that lineup – you don’t get a break. From the first hitter to the ninth, they can hit.”
The Mariners’ lineup? Not so much.
Seattle no longer has any regular player hitting as high as .280. The team leaders are Ackley (.278), Carp (.273) and Ichiro Suzuki (.272). Beyond them, no one is as high as .250.
Ichiro managed an infield single, his 173rd hit of the season with 10 games remaining. Ackley went 0-for-4 and Carp didn’t get a hit but should have – Rangers left fielder Josh Hamilton tracked his long fly ball, leaped at the wall and took away a home run.
Afterward, Wedge didn’t mince words about Seattle’s offense.
“When you hold a team like that to three runs, you’d like to think you have a chance to win the ballgame. Our pitchers did their job,” he said. “That’s something that’s glaring with us, something we’ve got to improve upon.
“At some point in time, we’ve got to be more disciplined and fight a little bit better with two strikes. Just as important, if not more important, we’ve got to be in better position to do a better job in hitter’s counts and early in the count.”
They have played 152 games this season, and Wedge still has to talk about what his hitters aren’t doing and, worse, what they are doing – striking out at a pace no AL team in history has matched.
larry.larue@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstriubne.com/mariners
