Rangers' pitching zips up Mariners

ARLINGTON, Texas — Playing the role of Rodrigo Lopez this week was John Rheinecker.

Last Thursday, Baltimore's Lopez rose from ashes of a 1-7 record to two-hit the Mariners. On Monday at Ameriquest Field in Arlington it was Rheinecker — on his 27th birthday — who virtually came from nowhere to dump a lot of negative numbers on them.

With Rheinecker — a so-so 2-1 for Oklahoma in the Pacific Coast League until a week ago — throwing a four-hitter into the ninth, Seattle lost 2-0, falling to a season-low nine games below .500 while being blanked for the seventh time en route to its fifth straight loss.

Compared to this guy, Boof Bonser is a household name.

Wasted was the effort of Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn, who matched zeroes with his fellow lefty until the sixth inning, when Mark Teixeira hit a first-pitch changeup out to left for the game's only runs.

"As you go along, you know you're in a good ballgame," said Washburn, who once again pitched better than his 3-6 record indicates. "He [Rheinecker] pitched a great game. I think this was the first time I've ever seen a shutout pitched in this park. It's a crazy game."

Actually, this was a ballgame, plain and simple, a vast difference from the three-ring mess over the weekend when the Mariners turned the Metrodome basepaths into a minefield.

"This was a heck of a ballgame," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "We have no reason to hang our heads tonight ... unlike the games we had in Minnesota."

If the Mariners were not embarrassing — Eddie Guardado's word — as they were against the Twins, they were puzzling in their failure to hit a left-hander, failing to even threaten Rheinecker until the last inning, when they got the first man [of five to reach all night] to second base.

"With the hitters we have in our lineup, yeah, I'm baffled why we haven't done better against lefties," said Hargrove, whose club is 5-14 in games started by southpaws. "I'm baffled why lefties or righties have given us a tough time."

Into last night, Seattle, allegedly strong from the right side, had hit only .225 against left-handers, third-lowest in the majors behind the Cubs at .202 and Baltimore at .218.

When Seattle put two men on in the ninth, Carl Everett raised Mariners hopes for two seconds with a long fly ball to right-center off reliever Rick Bauer. But he got too much air under the ball and Mark De Rosa caught it on the warning track to end the game.

"My heart jumped," Hargrove said. "I thought Everett got it well enough. It's about time we got one of those."

While it was a crisper game for the Mariners thanks to Washburn's no-nonsense work and solid defense, the offense was stunted by Rheinecker.

Memphis mauled Rheinecker this year, Albuquerque obliterated him and Round Rock — you guessed it — rocked him.

But the Mariners?

"We gave him some good at-bats," Hargrove said. "We made him throw strikes and he did. He had a good sinker going tonight and we hit a lot of grounders."

Fourteen of 25 outs came via ground ball, the key being a one-out bouncer Jose Lopez hit up the middle in the sixth inning after Yuniesky Betancourt led with a single. Michael Young ran it down near the bag and turned it into an inning-ending 4-3 double play.

"I faced this guy when he was at Midland two years ago, I saw him last year when I was injured down at Tacoma," Lopez said. "He never had that sinker. It was good tonight, but maybe just tonight. If we see him again, maybe it will be different."

Good as Rheinecker was, Washburn had a two-hitter into the sixth when Young singled with one out. With two away, Teixeira picked off a change and just sailed it over the wall in left for his sixth homer.

What his team is going through did not enter Washburn's mind or game.

"My goal is to pitch a shutout every time," he said. "You get into a game like that and you don't want to be the guy who gives in first. Tonight I was."

From a pitcher's standpoint, what does he think of the Mariners hitters' troubles?

"I don't pay attention," Washburn said. "The last thing they need is to hear something from a pitcher. I've stood in a batter's box. It's hard."

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com