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Tuesday, Jun. 13 8:05pm ET
Mariners now seven games over .500 | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Gil Meche was well ahead of the Kansas City Royals and needed only to beat the rain. "I just wanted to go out there and throw strikes and see if my fastball could last throughout the game," said Meche, who allowed just one hit through five innings of Seattle's rain-shortened 7-0 victory Tuesday night. "The last pitch I threw in the fifth inning still had good velocity on it," said Meche, making his first start since coming off the disabled list. "Before it was to a point where that pitch right there would have been about 85. Things are looking better." Seattle moved a season-high seven games over .500 (34-27). The Mariners scored three runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth as Meche began to pick up his pitching pace. In the top of the fifth, everyone knew a heavy thunderstorm was rumbling toward Kauffman Stadium and might halt play for the night. Leading 7-0, the Mariners made outs as quickly as they could in the sixth, swinging weakly at every first pitch to make sure the minimum 5½ innings were played to make it an official game. "We knew we had about 15 minutes," Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. "It was actually a little longer than that, but we were told 15 minutes. We put the ball in play real quick." The Royals, who lost their third consecutive home game for the first time this season, understood Piniella's strategy, but didn't like it. "That was a joke," catcher Gregg Zaun said. "I don't know that I've ever seen anybody do that before, but I guess you can't blame them." Mike Sweeney had the Royals' only hit -- an opposite-field double with two outs in the first. Kansas City had only two other baserunners on a walk and an error. The game, halted as the Royals came to bat in the bottom of the sixth, was called after a delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes. Meche (2-4) who missed two starts with a strained right shoulder, struck out two, walked one and also benefited from an outstanding running catch by left fielder Rickey Henderson in the third. Seattle, a half-game ahead of Oakland in the AL West, has won four in a row and seven of nine. Mike Cameron's leadoff triple off Brett Laxton (0-1) in the third got the Mariners started on a three-run inning. Raul Ibanez had an RBI single, Mark McLemore hit an RBI double, and Alex Rodriguez had an RBI groundout. Seattle made it 6-0 in the fourth on John Mabry's two-run single and a sacrifice fly by Henderson. John Olerud scored the Mariners' final run on a passed ball in the sixth. Laxton, making his debut with the Royals, gave up six runs, eight hits and two walks, and struck out one in 3 1-3 innings. Henderson robbed Scott Pose of a hit in the third with a nice running catch one step inside the left-field foul line. Game notesRoyals SS Rey Sanchez, who turned a nice 6-3 double play in the second, has gone 40 games without an error. He has just one error this season in 56 games. ... Kansas City's Jermaine Dye took over first place among outfielders in AL All-Star balloting. He has 510,595 votes and leads Yankees OF Bernie Williams by more than 13,000. ... Royals OF Carlos Beltran, the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year, was benched in favor of Todd Dunwoody. Beltran is hitting .252. ... Olerud singled in all three at-bats. ... A member of the grounds crew got caught under the billowing tarp after it covered the infield. Royals players came running out of the dugout to assist, but the man emerged to the cheers of the crowd a moment later. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Seattle Clubhouse Kansas City Clubhouse RECAPS Chi. White Sox 4 Cleveland 3
Seattle 7
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