Mariners break out their whitewash

On "Latin America Beisbol Day" at Safeco Field, bizarro day at the ballpark might have been more like it.

On a roof-covered cloudy Saturday afternoon, the 33,441 in attendance did not see the stumbling Mariners of May. The team they watched resembled everything the Mariners were supposed to be before this season began drifting to sea.

Los Marineros, as they were called on Saturday, looked legit. Where the Mariners have often faltered in the season's opening two months, Los Marineros thrived in a 5-0 win against Detroit.

"That's what you call a clean game," manager John McLaren said. "Good defense, a little hitting, great pitching, it's a pretty good effort ... hopefully we can do this a lot more."

The Mariners had been at Detroit's mercy this season in four previous meetings, with their pitchers compiling earned-run averages that put the price of premium unleaded gas to shame. Los Marineros, behind a virtuoso start by Felix Hernandez, held the Tigers scoreless with only two hits.

Allowing only four base runners, Hernandez took home his first win since April 16, a span of seven starts that saw him receive only nine runs of support. In seven shutout innings, he allowed only two singles and hit two batters.

He struck out seven and was ahead in the count all afternoon. He threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 24 batters he faced.

"When my two-seamer's working, they can swing at the first pitch all they want," Hernandez said.

The entire stadium took a deep breath in the third, when a line drive by Detroit catcher Ivan Rodriguez headed directly for Hernandez's head before he got his glove in the way. He knocked the ball to the ground, got up and threw Rodriguez out.

"I don't want to remember it," said Hernandez, still a bit rattled afterward. "I made the play, but I was scared, too."

Hernandez left after the seventh with calf tightness, which he said was not serious. He watched Brandon Morrow and J.J. Putz close out his third win of the season. He had something new on Saturday: run support.

"If guys give me some runs," he said, "we're in the game."

The Mariners have often made pushing across runs look strenuous, stranding enough runners to start their own island nation. Los Marineros piled up 10 hits and scored five runs, the most Seattle has scored in a win since May 11.

They moved runners when they needed to, pulled off the hit-and-run perfectly and to illustrate just how well things went Saturday, even catcher Kenji Johjima — who had stolen only four bases in 325 major-league games — stole home.

With the Mariners ahead 2-0 in the fourth, Johjima started home on a squeeze play on Justin Verlander's 1-0 pitch to Miguel Cairo. Verlander's pitch hit the dirt and ricocheted off Rodriguez's chest in front of the plate. As Rodriguez tried to pick the ball up, Johjima slid around him and touched the plate.

"That's not a true home steal," Johjima said through a translator. He added, "In fact, I wanted all of you to ask me about stealing third base the other day [Tuesday]. That was a better steal. That you need skills to do."

Both Johjima and Jose Vidro, the two hitters in the middle of the lineup hitting below .240, had multihit games. Johjima drove in two runners, including Vidro, with a single in the first, and Johjima also had a double. Vidro, hitting .280 since May 4, had two singles and walked in the seventh.

"You can tell Vidro's really coming around," McLaren said. "He's starting to spray the ball all over the field.

"I'd like to be up here talking about somebody new every night. ... Some guys are all starting to swing the bat better. We don't care who does it, as long as we get the big RBIs."

The Mariners had the worst May in franchise history at 8-20, a month that saw the club fall in the standings and attendance plummet. Los Marineros offered the hope that even if the postseason has become an impossibility, the possibility of a summer of competent baseball might remain.

So perhaps it wouldn't be the worst idea to keep those jerseys around a little longer.

"I'm all for it," McLaren said.

Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com