Vargas has great outing in Mariners victory
SEATTLE – If indeed this was the final home start Jason Vargas makes here, he sure gave the Safeco Field crowd something to remember him by.
Vargas also gave potential trade suitors a look at just why he just secured his career-high 11th victory. The Seattle Mariners’ left-hander retired the first 11 batters he faced and threw eight innings of one-hit ball for a 4-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday in his final outing before next week’s trade deadline.
The only hit allowed by Vargas over seven innings of work came after he’d retired 11 straight and then walked Lorenzo Cain. Billy Butler then cashed in a run on the 200th double of his career to cut Seattle’s fourth-inning lead down to 2-1.
But the way Vargas was going, it didn’t really matter. He picked up right where he’d left off and retired nine of the final 11 batters he faced - giving up just a pair of walks in the interim – while his hitters had the night they’d been looking for.
A crowd of 15,014 watched the Mariners go to town on Royals starting pitcher Luis Mendoza early and keep applying pressure despite a lineup that featured a struggling Dustin Ackley and four batters with sub-.200 averages.
In fact, it was the struggling bats that did the biggest damage.
Ackley began the night by snapping an 0-for-20 slump with a leadoff single and later scored on a two-run single by Mike Carp. It was the first hit for Carp since coming off the disabled list on Tuesday, and he would wind up with two more before the night was done.
After the Royals scored to make it 2-1, it was .188-hitting Brendan Ryan who restored the two-run cushion with a single to left in the bottom of the fourth that brought Carp home.
Miguel Olivo, who entered batting .198, would wind up with two hits on the night, including a double in the sixth inning. Up came .161-hitting Carlos Peguero – in an 0-for-12 slump since taking over for Ichiro in right field – and he ripped a double down the right-field line to score Olivo for a 4-1 lead.
Mendoza was done soon after that, having yielded the four runs on nine hits and three walks, with a hit batter and a wild pitch thrown over five-plus innings.
But Vargas just kept on going.
When he was finally done, having retired the side in order in the eighth, the crowd behind the Mariner dugout stood and cheered as he walked off the field. They knew he’d thrown a night-capping 115 pitches and understood the significance of the moment, given the trade interest several teams are said to have in Vargas.
Tom Wilhelmsen pitched the ninth as Seattle evened its record at 2-2 on the homestand.
There is a compelling argument for the Mariners to hang on to Vargas as a stabilizing presence behind Felix Hernandez in the rotation. But there is an equally strong one to move him now when his value is high, and it starts with his $4.8 million salary.
That figure could jump to between $7 million and $9 million in arbitration this offseason, especially if Vargas keeps piling on the wins. And if the Mariners feel that’s too high for what Vargas brings to the table – a pitcher who gives up a lot of home runs away from pitcher-friendly Safeco Field - then he won’t be pitching for them beyond the next two months in any event.