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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
DETROIT (AP) -- As he walked to the mound, Aaron Sele was
thinking this might be a good night. The new grass at Comerica Park
was tall, thick and soft.
Sele, getting 14 outs on grounders, pitched a three-hitter for
his fifth career shutout and Raul Ibanez drove in two runs as the
Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 4-0 Wednesday in
Comerica's first night game.
|  | | Aaron Sele threw 101 pitches in shutting out the Tigers, 67 of them strikes. |
"The key tonight was the grass," Sele said. "It's tall, and I
got a lot of ground balls tonight. Having the infield turn two
double plays helped, too."
Sele (1-0), who signed as a free agent in January after going
18-9 last season for Texas, kept the Tigers off balance with a
combination of good control and changing speeds.
"He makes you swing at his pitch," said Detroit's Brad Ausmus,
who went hitless in three at-bats -- two grounders and a routine
flyball. "He was always on the corners and changes speeds real
well."
The Tigers, who broke a five-game losing streak by winning
Comerica's opener Tuesday, didn't get a runner past first base.
Sele, who pitched the 10th complete game of his career, had six
1-2-3 innings with the aid of the double plays.
"With the Tigers, you never know what they're going to do,"
Sele said. "They've got a lot of really good hitters. I kept
thinking them might break out at any time. But, anytime you're
facing major league hitters you've got to throw strikes, and I did
that tonight."
Of the 101 pitches Sele threw, 67 were strikes.
"He got all his pitches over, got ahead and made the Tigers put
it in play," Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. "He only had one
base on balls. That's impressive."
It was the first shutout this year against the Tigers. They were
blanked a major league-high 12 times last season.
"We really didn't drive the ball tonight," Detroit manager
Phil Garner said. "I didn't see many adjustments in our hitters.
We're not being very consistent at the plate. We must learn to be
tougher outs."
Garner also said he has talked with head groundskeeper Heather
Nabozny about the length of the grass.
"We'll see in a few weeks how the grass takes," Garner said.
"We might cut it shorter then."
Detroit starter Dave Mlicki (0-2), the Tigers' best pitcher last
season, gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings.
Mark McLemore and Alex Rodriguez singled, giving Seattle runners
at first and third with one out in the first. John Olerud singled
McLemore home and Edgar Martinez gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with
an RBI grounder.
Ibanez, who entered as a defensive replacement in the fifth, had
a two-out RBI single making it 4-0 in the sixth.
Game notes
Seattle also had the last shutout against the Tigers.
Freddy Garcia blanked Detroit on Aug. 24, 1999, at Safeco Field.
... Speed has become an important part of Seattle's game now that Ken Griffey Jr. is gone. Twice this season, Mariners runners have
scored from first on doubles. "I saw times last year when guys on
second couldn't score on a double," said one scout, who asked that
his name not be used. ... After drawing a capacity opening-day
crowd of 39,168, the Tigers drew just 21,405. The temperature at
game time was 44 degrees, four degrees warmer than on the opener.
... The Tigers, who had one error, have committed 11 errors in
their eight games. Ten have come in the last six games.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Seattle Clubhouse
Detroit Clubhouse
RECAPS
NY Yankees 8
Texas 6
Cleveland 5
Oakland 0
Boston 7
Minnesota 3
Seattle 4
Detroit 0
Chi. White Sox 7
Tampa Bay 1
Kansas City 7
Baltimore 6
Toronto 6
Anaheim 2
Chicago Cubs 11
Atlanta 4
Colorado 7
Cincinnati 5
Florida 11
Milwaukee 4
Philadelphia 8
NY Mets 5
Pittsburgh 6
Montreal 4
Houston 7
St. Louis 5
San Diego 4
Arizona 2
Los Angeles 3
San Francisco 2
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