Mojo on the mound: M's lefty Washburn steals show

Jarrod Washburn's worst pitch came before his first pitch.

It left his hand, a routine fastball to finish warmups, and shot straight in the air like a space shuttle headed toward the moon.

If this game had been in the Kingdome, the ball would have hit the roof. Word is it's still hovering somewhere in the atmosphere above Safeco Field.

"That's what I've been working on," he quipped. "That's an unhittable pitch once I get it mastered."

He barely struggled after the moonshot, mastering the New York Yankees in a 3-0 victory Friday in front of 44,214. He pitched eight innings, allowing six hits and recording a season-high six strikeouts.

Yankees leadoff hitter Johnny Damon said Washburn hit "a second gear." Mariners manager Mike Hargrove called Washburn "an absolute, maybe the ultimate, competitor."

Washburn, well, he just shrugged. He expected this season to be different.

Last season, Washburn wasn't comfortable. Too reserved. Too much holding back. Too mellow for a pitcher who Friday finished off the eighth inning with a strikeout of Hideki Matsui and promptly unleashed a fist pump that would have made Tiger Woods blush.

"I looked myself in the mirror last year," he said, "and I asked, 'What am I doing? Why am I changing?' "

He started pitching from the other side of the rubber this season, but the significant changes, the ones that allowed for appearances like Friday's, were more mental than mechanical. He needed that emotion, that attitude, that fire.

Run production from a Mariners offense that often stranded Washburn last season hasn't hurt. Neither has a completely healthy arm. And in seven starts this season, Washburn is 3-3 with a 2.64 earned-run average. He owns a shutout against Oakland. He has allowed just five runs in three starts this month.

"He's pitched well enough in all of his starts to be 6-0," Hargrove said. "When he's on, you get perfection like tonight."

Now about those runs. In the third inning, Ichiro doubled down the right-field line and scored when Raul Ibanez slapped a single into right field for his 599th career RBI.

In the fourth inning, with Adrian Beltre at first and a hit-and-run on, Kenji Johjima smacked a line drive so hard it just kept rising until it cleared the wall in left field. The blast was Johjima's fourth home run this season and second hit on Friday. More important, it gave the Mariners a 3-0 lead.

Ichiro also continued his thievery on the bases. He stole second after singling in the first inning and again after walking in the fourth, the second time reaching the base a millisecond before the tag. That extended his American League record to 43 consecutive steals (the major-league record, held by Vince Coleman, is 50).

J.J. Putz got his eighth save and his 11th straight appearance without allowing a run.

A constellation of stars turned out to watch the Mariners and Yankees (16-18). Among them: ABC television personality Charles Gibson, "American Idol" finalist Blake Lewis and Mariners legend Jay Buhner.

But on a night when the stars aligned and everything went right, it was an unassuming hunter from Wisconsin with a renewed fire in his belly who stole the show.

Washburn spread each of his six hits evenly over the first six innings. He recorded the last eight outs in a row. Along the way, he splintered bats and located like he had a scope attached to his left arm and helped the Mariners (16-15) push back over the .500 mark.

"My approach this year was going to be different," Washburn said. "I'm being more myself. I'm not worrying about how I'm going to fit in. It's carrying over on the field."

Except during warmups, of course. That's when Washburn used his worst pitch before his first pitch, and the game itself, well, that was gravy.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com