Toronto Blue Jays starting Kyle Drabek throws a pitch while playing against the Seattle Mariners during third inning AL action in Toronto on Wednesday, September 22, 2010.Nathan Denette
Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston believes the experience of watching big-league hitters turn on a fastball can be an eye-opening experience for a rookie pitcher, and Kyle Drabek had one of those nights Wednesday.
The phenom right-hander acquitted himself fairly well in his home debut, but was burned by home runs to Canadian Michael Saunders and Jose Lopez - who also took Brian Tallet and Shawn Camp deep - in a 6-3 loss the lowly Seattle Mariners.
Drabek (0-2) allowed just three runs on four hits and a walk in five innings of his work during his second big-league start, often going deep into counts leading to 84 pitches. His fastball regularly hit 94-95 miles an hour, but as was the case during his debut in Baltimore last week, that's not always enough to blow it by batters in the majors.
"I think that's maybe the biggest shocker for guys at this level," Gaston said before the game. "It doesn't matter how hard you throw, someone will turn it around on you, and if you learn you really have to locate your pitches up here, then you're going to get better."
Saunders, the promising Victoria native fighting through an inconsistent season, proved that again when he smacked a 94 mph, 3-1 fastball over the wall in centre for a two-run shot to open the scoring. Lopez made it 3-0 in the third when he drove an 89 m.p.h. cutter over the wall in left.
Drabek settled down from there, but got little support from the Blue Jays (76-75), who could muster only a pair of runs off starter David Pauley (3-8) in falling to the Mariners (58-93). Only 12,302 were on hand despite the lure of watching Drabek, Jose Bautista's chase of 50 home runs and Ichiro Suzuki's pursuit of a record 10th-straight 200-hit season.
While Bautista remained stuck at 49 homers - a drive to left in the fifth was foul by only a few feet - and Suzuki picked up a single to give him 198 hits this season, it was Lopez who put on a show.
The infielder became the 11th player in Mariners history to go deep three times in a game, to go along with Mike Cameron's four-homer game in 2002.
His second homer, a solo shot on reliever Brian Tallet's first pitch of the sixth inning, made it 4-2 after the Blue Jays had scored a pair in the fourth on Vernon Wells' solo shot and Edwin Encarnacion's RBI groundout.
No. 3 on the night and No. 10 on the season for Lopez came in the eighth, a two-run shot off Camp that made it 6-2.
Wells' home run was No. 29 and leaves him one short of the 30-plateau for the third time in his career.
John Buck added an RBI groundout in the ninth off former Blue Jay Brandon League.