ANGELS UNDONE BY ROOKIE WASHBURN'S STRONG EFFORT GOES TO WASTE SEATTLE 3, ANGELS 2.Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer SEATTLE - Should the Angels fail to make the playoffs by the slimmest of margins, they will look back and remember a handful of games and a group of antagonists, both likely and unlikely, that led to their demise. Ichiro Suzuki would fall in the former category, Bobby Madritsch Robert Allen Madritsch (born February 28, 1976 in Oak Lawn, IL) was a Major League Baseball pitcher. Baseball career Madritsch was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 6th round of the 1998 Major League Baseball Draft out of Point Park University. and Randy Winn Dwight Randall "Randy" Winn (born June 9, 1974 in Los Angeles, California) is an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. Winn is a switch hitter, and throws right-handed. the latter. While the Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are a professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. The Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Mariners have played in Safeco Field. have long ago given up on this season, they have found solace in the record-setting hit pace of Suzuki and the unlikely rise of rookie pitcher Madritsch. They set the stage for victory, and Winn ensured it with a two-run pinch-hit homer that produced a 3-2 win over the Angels before 28,408 at Safeco Field • • [ on Tuesday night. Once again, the Angels (82-62) blew a chance to move closer in their divisional and wild-card chases. Oakland lost to Texas, but thanks to the Angels' dismal offensive output, the Athletics maintained their two-game lead in the American League West The American League West is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's American League. The division currently has four teams, but it has had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. . Boston also lost, cracking the door open in the wild-card race, but the Angels remained 4 1/2 games behind In sports, the phrase games behind, often abbreviated as GB in tables, is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. the Red Sox with just 18 to play. This loss hardly was the fault of starter Jarrod Washburn Jarrod Michael Washburn (born August 13, 1974 in La Crosse, Wisconsin) is a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. Drafted by the California Angels in the 2nd round of the 1995 amateur draft out of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Washburn won the final game , who was bombed for five third-inning runs in his previous outing against Toronto. This time, he shut out the Mariners into the fifth inning. That's when two walks preceded Suzuki's ground-rule double which drove in Jose Lopez to break up a scoreless tie. It was Suzuki's 232nd hit this year, keeping him on pace to break George Sisler's 84-year-old record of 257. But the Angels will take a 6 2/3-inning, two-run outing like they got from Washburn (11-7), every night. He left trailing 1-0 and had thrown just 97 pitches when manager Mike Scioscia The move did not work out. Reliever Brendan Donnelly Brendan Kevin Donnelly (b. July 4, 1971 in Washington, D.C.) is a Major League Baseball relief pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. Donnelly had bounced around the minor leagues for 10 seasons after he was drafted in 1992 by the Chicago White Sox before he finally made his gave up a pinch- hit, two-run home run to Winn that extended Seattle's lead to 3-0. The Angels cobbled cob·ble 1 n. 1. A cobblestone. 2. Geology A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded. 3. cobbles See cob coal. tr. together four singles off Madritsch and reliever J.J. Putz in the ninth to pull within 3-2 and get the tying run to second, but Putz got Jeff DaVanon on a fly ball to right field to end it. Putz's save ensured that Madritsch recorded two tightly-contested wins over the Angels. Madritsch, who as recently as 2001 was pitching in an independent league, was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma in July and worked out of the bullpen. On July 29, he shut out the Angels for the final four innings of a 6-5 13-inning Mariners victory, earning him a slot in their rotation. On Tuesday, he showed why by taking a shutout into the ninth, striking out seven and improving to 3-2 with a 2.88 ERA as a starter. Similar to Washburn in that he's left-handed with a fastball that tops out around 91 mph, Madritsch (5-2) changed speeds with aplomb a·plomb n. Self-confident assurance; poise. See Synonyms at confidence. [French, from Old French a plomb, perpendicularly : a, according to (from Latin ad-; see . He held the Angels to four singles through eight shutout innings before being chased after singles by Vladimir Guerrero and Garret Anderson put the Angels on the scoreboard. In the first eight innings, the Angels advanced just two runners to second base, and their lone threat died quietly in the second, when singles by Troy Glaus and Jose Guillen were sandwiched around strikeouts by Anderson and Bengie Molina. Washburn was nearly as good, though his three walks led to his demise. He walked Lopez and Willie Bloomquist in the fifth. Suzuki, who posted a five-hit game in July against the Angels, broke out of his six at-bat ``drought'' by lacing a double that hopped the wall in right for a 1-0 lead. Washburn breezed through the sixth, but in the seventh, he gave up a leadoff double to Hiram Bocachica before getting the next two outs. At 97 pitches, Scioscia felt Washburn was done. So he summoned Donnelly, who grooved his second pitch to Winn for the home run that proved to be the game-winner. Gabe Lacques, (626) 962-8811 gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com CAPTION(S): 2 boxes Box: (1) STORY LINES (2) GAME RECAP |
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