M's make quick work of KC

Jamie Moyer was 23 years old, playing in his first major-league season, when last he threw a two-hitter.

He did so as a baby-faced Chicago Cub in a place that no longer has a major-league team, Montreal.

Almost 20 years later, Moyer did it again. His complete-game effort, combined with some nifty defense and late-inning offensive punch, propelled the Mariners to a 4-0 win over the punchless Kansas City Royals Friday night at Safeco Field.

Moyer sparkled, retiring the Royals in order in the ninth as the crowd chanted the veteran left-hander's name. He needed just 93 pitches and two hours to do it.

It was Moyer's first shutout since July 1, 2002, also against the Royals, and the fastest game in Safeco Field history, eclipsing a 2-hour, 1-minute game on Aug. 9, 2005.

"It was crisp and it was quick, and that's a fun game to be a part of," Moyer said. "The win is the most important thing."

Sure, the crowd of 28,382 had little to cheer about for 6-˝ innings. The Mariners had two hits until the bottom of the seventh. But now at 24-32 and trying to stay in the American League West race, the Mariners will take it.

Fortunately for Moyer, he was still in the game to see the Mariners back him with hitting. This after manager Mike Hargrove came out to the mound to check on Moyer following two hard-hit balls in the top of the eighth.

"I asked him how he was," Hargrove said. "He said he was OK, and he said it with a lot of conviction."

It was the right call. Moyer induced a double play to end the inning, one of three the Mariners turned.

Back-to-back home runs by Jose Lopez and Raul Ibanez in the seventh inning helped the cause. Moyer improved to 3-5, and his home earned-run average dropped to 2.65.

Better late than never, as far as the Mariners' offense was concerned. Seattle scored all of its runs in its final two at-bats of the night.

Moyer held the Royals hitless until Emil Brown led off the fifth with a single up the middle. The inning proved to be the Royals' best scoring threat, as they put runners at second and third base with two outs before Moyer got Angel Berroa to ground out to shortstop.

Other teams might have been able to produce when helped by a Seattle error (shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt's seventh of the season) and the failure to turn a double play. But these Royals are 13-39 for a reason — or perhaps more than one.

Not that the Mariners fared much better, at least for most of the game. Their only hits through six innings were a leadoff double in the second from Ibanez — who never advanced from second base — and a one-out Ichiro single in the sixth.

Kansas City's Bobby Keppel (0-1), making his first major-league start, kept the Mariners off balance and worked the outside edge of the plate well against Seattle's right-handed hitters. He limited the Mariners to six hits over 6-2/3 innings, with four strikeouts and a walk.

But four of those six hits came in the Mariners' seventh as Keppel unraveled. Lopez, batting third in the order for the third straight game, sent the first pitch of the inning into the lower deck in left field for his ninth home run of the year.

Ibanez hit Keppel's very next pitch on a line to right field and barely cleared the wall. It was also the ninth home run of the season for Ibanez, who shares the team lead with Lopez.

"All we had to do was give him [Moyer] a couple of runs," Ibanez said. "I wasn't sure [his home run would get out]. I was definitely hoping for it. It was fortunate for us it went out."

That marked the first back-to-back home runs for Seattle since Aug. 20 of last season, when Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre went deep successively at Minnesota, also in the seventh inning.

Beltre speared a hot smash diving to his left to throw out Esteban German in the eighth. Seattle's infield ended that inning for the Royals with a 6-4-3 double play.

The Mariners gave Moyer some additional support with insurance runs off Royals reliever Jeremy Affeldt in the eighth. Lopez doubled into the left-field corner to drive in Ichiro and Beltre.

"He was golden," Hargrove said of Moyer. "When they did hit the ball hard, it was where we could make a play on it."

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com