Mariners shake off cold start to win opener

A sense of urgency was building in the cold afternoon air as inning after inning drifted by with no Mariners crossing the plate.

It was on the minds of 46,334 fans shivering in the Safeco Field seats Monday, having heard all winter that this team could have its offensive shortcomings. And it was ever present in the head of Raul Ibanez as he stepped to the plate with two on and nobody out in the sixth, his scuffling, somewhat-nervous-looking team down by a run.

Ichiro knew the stakes as well as he stood on second base following a successful hit-and-run with Jose Lopez. He felt a rush of relief as Ibanez came through with a single to right field that brought him home to score in what became a two-run inning that propelled the Mariners to a 5-2 win over the Texas Rangers.

"That was probably the most crucial point in the game," Ichiro said of putting up two unearned runs to take the lead against sizzling Rangers starter Kevin Millwood. "If Millwood had gotten through that inning without allowing any runs, it's possible he would have been able to complete the entire game. So, for us to get runs in that situation was highly crucial."

The Mariners wound up knocking Millwood from the game after that inning. They put up three more runs against erratic Rangers reliever Kazuo Fukumori in the seventh, two scoring on a double by Lopez, to secure a season-opening victory in a year of enhanced expectations.

Mariners manager John McLaren set the tone before the game, saying the bar had been raised higher than ever for his team. McLaren added that anything short of an American League West title would be a disappointment, and many of the pumped-up fans on hand for the opener shared his sentiments.

But their hopes were staggered early when the pitcher expected to carry the team, left-hander Erik Bedard, was tagged for a solo home run by Michael Young in the game's second at-bat. That Bedard had thoroughly dominated leadoff hitter Ian Kinsler, dispatching him with devastating curveballs in a three-pitch strikeout, no longer seemed to matter.

The confidence of the Mariners' faithful ebbed as a struggling Bedard, his strike zone squeezed by plate umpire Jim Joyce, had trouble nailing the inside corner with his fastball. Bedard threw 29 pitches in the first inning and was up to 95 after just four frames.

When 11 additional pitches in the fifth put him at 106, Sean Green came on and tossed 1-2/3 scoreless innings to earn the victory.

But the most important number of the day for Bedard, who walked four while striking out five, was the lone run allowed. He kept the Rangers from piling on as his team tried to mount a rally.

The Mariners had squandered a two-on, no-out situation in the second inning against Millwood. Ibanez knew something had to happen when the same situation presented itself in the sixth.

"At that point, when you're first and second with nobody out, there's definitely a sense of urgency in a game like that when the guy you're facing is pitching the way he was," Ibanez said.

Millwood threw Ibanez an off-speed pitch.

"On an off-speed pitch, ideally, what you'd like to do is not have to try to add on," Ibanez said. "When you add on ... you end up grounding out or popping up. You just try to stay flat through the zone and not try to drive everyone in. You just try to play it one run at a time."

And that's what the Mariners did after Ibanez's single tied it 1-1. Adrian Beltre hit a grounder with one out and managed to beat the double-play relay attempt at first base, with Lopez scoring the go-ahead run from third.

Fukumori issued a one-out walk and a single to Yuniesky Betancourt in the seventh. After a wild pitch, he walked Ichiro intentionally to load the bases, then uncorked another wild offering that brought a run home.

Lopez's double cashed in two more and put the game out of reach. The Rangers got a run back in the eighth off Eric O'Flaherty, but J.J. Putz shut Texas down in the ninth to save the win for Green.

McLaren said not everything went according to plan, but he liked the way his team used the hit-and-run, worked the count with seven walks and pounced on Texas' mistakes.

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com