Saunders Homer Sparks Seattle Rally Past Boston
[photogallerylink id=35344 align=right]Michael Saunders broke up the no-hit bid of Boston's Jon Lester with a two-run homer in the sixth inning, Seattle added three more runs off Lester in the eighth inning, and the Mariners rallied for a 5-1 win over the Red Sox on Saturday night.
One batter after Lester's chance at a perfect game ended when center fielder Eric Patterson dropped Jack Wilson's one-out liner in the sixth, Saunders ripped a 2-2 curve for his eighth homer of the season. It was the second homer by a lefty this season off Lester, who for the first five innings was untouchable.
Instead his one mistake to Saunders, and Boston's inability to mount any offense against Seattle's pitching, sent Lester (11-5) to his second straight loss. David Ortiz accounted for all of the Boston offense with a solo homer leading off the fourth inning.
Seattle then added some insurance runs in the eighth. Milton Bradley tripled for only Seattle's second hit off Lester leading off the inning, nearly stumbling and falling rounding second. Bradley scored on Jack Wilson's squeeze bunt for a two-run lead. Saunders added another hit later in the inning with a comebacker off Lester's spikes and scored on Chone Figgins' double. Ichiro Suzuki also scored when Jose Lopez was hit by reliever Manny Delcarmen's pitch with the bases loaded.
Garrett Olson then finished off the ninth for his first career save, securing the victory for Chris Seddon (1-0). It was Seddon's first career win in his 10th major league appearance.
Lester was rolling from the start, striking out Suzkui to start the bottom of the first. It was just the start of five dominating innings against Seattle and its meager offense.
He added two more strike outs in the second, two more in the third, then set down Suzuki (looking), Figgins (looking) and Franklin Gutierrez (swinging) in the fourth.
Of the first 16 batters Lester faced, 10 struck out and the other six were putouts on the infield.
Batter No. 17 started Lester's ever-so-brief downfall.
Wilson got a 1-2 fastball that Lester left over the plate and lined it into left-center field. Patterson quickly raced over and was in position in time, but appeared to close his glove a moment too soon and the liner glanced off the top of his glove and fell to the turf. Wilson hustled into second on the error.
Finally with a runner on base, Lester fell behind 2-1 before a cut fastball for a called strike that evened the count against Saunders at 2-2. The curve ball Saunders hit 368-feet into the right field seats was the same pitch Saunders struck out swinging on in the third inning.
Lester finished with a career-high 13 strikeouts and one walk. He gave up four hits and threw 124 pitches.
Seattle starter David Pauley pitched admirably, but couldn't keep his pitch count down and was done after 5 2-3 innings and 97 pitches. While Pauley gave up a number of hard hit balls for outs, his only major mistake was Ortiz's homer on the first pitch of the fourth inning, his 19th homer of the season.
Pauley gave up just five hits and struck out five, but he remained winless in his eight career starts.
Figgins received a mixed reception a day after his dugout scuffle with manager Don Wakamatsu. The second baseman heard a smattering of boos when he was introduced for his first at-bat. But he was lauded with a loud ovation after making a backhanded stop and spinning throw to get Boston's Kevin Cash in the third.
Notes: Red Sox manager Terry Francona said injured C Victor Martinez will catch in the bullpen during Sunday's game. Francona said it's the next step in getting Martinez back from his fractured left thumb. ... Lester's previous career-high for strikeouts was 12 last year against Toronto. ... Seattle is now one victory shy of 2,500 in franchise history.
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