Mariners' Moyer shuts out Cardinals

By Jim Cour

The Associated Press

SEATTLE -- Jamie Moyer just keeps getting better, even as he grows older.

Moyer pitched his first shutout in nearly four years and the Seattle Mariners' offense broke out with 14 hits in a 10-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

"If I would pick a peak in my career, I think last year in the second half is where I wanted to be," the 39-year-old Moyer said.

Asked if he was close to last season, when he became the oldest pitcher in major league history to win 20 games for the first time, he replied, "Not quite, not quite, but I feel I'm working in that direction."

Ichiro Suzuki tripled, doubled and singled, Charles Gipson hit a two-run triple and Mike Cameron doubled twice in Seattle's first interleague game against the Cardinals.

Moyer (6-2) won his third decision in a row. He gave up five hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out five for his seventh career shutout and first since Sept. 17, 1998, an 8-0 win at Oakland.

The veteran left-hander was 0-5 when he pitched for the Cardinals in 1995. He improved his career record to 3-1 against St. Louis in his first game against the Cardinals since 1988.

Moyer went eight shutout innings in a win over Oakland in his last start, giving him a scoreless streak of 17 innings that has lowered his ERA to 3.52.

In his last five starts, Moyer has a 1.13 ERA and has walked only three batters, one intentionally, in 39 2/3 innings.

Moyer was 20-6 last season. After the All-Star game in Seattle, he went 11-2 with a 2.22 ERA. He went 3-0 in the postseason, including Seattle's lone victory in the AL championship series against the New York Yankees.

"To me, it's the consistency," he said. "Outing after outing after outing. You'd like to think that every outing you're going to be sharp. You'd like to feel that way and think that way, but it doesn't always work out that way."

Moyer threw a season-high 123 pitches, 80 for strikes. He had a 10-0 lead after seven innings. Still, manager Lou Piniella left him in the game.

"He's going to get an extra day his next time out," Piniella said. "He was throwing the ball so well and he wanted to finish it. It was the right thing to do."

J.D. Drew dropped a bunt down the third-base line for the Cardinals' first hit in the fourth that drew boos from the crowd of 45,699 at Safeco Field.

"You know what he's got and you know what he's going to do," Drew said. "It's just trying to get a quality pitch to hit. He hit his spots and he got the outs when he needed to."

The Mariners, who scored only five runs in dropping two of three in a weekend series against the Chicago Cubs, jumped in front in the first inning.

John Olerud's two-out RBI single made it 1-0, but Bret Boone went too far rounding second base and was thrown out by new Cardinals center fielder So Taguchi.

St. Louis placed Jim Edmonds on the disabled list earlier in the day and called up Taguchi from the minors. He and Suzuki were teammates for nine years with the Orix Blue Wave in Japan and remain good friends.

It marked the first time two Japanese position players have played in a major league game.

Seattle made it 3-0 in the second on singles by Dan Wilson and Desi Relaford, and a triple to left-center by Gipson.

Cardinals starter Bud Smith (0-4), who pitched a no-hitter at San Diego last Sept. 3, added to his 2002 struggles when he balked in a run in the third.

Pitching to Relaford, Smith was called for a balk by second base umpire Angel Hernandez to bring in Boone from third. The run was unearned because of shortstop Edgar Renteria's fourth error of the season.

The Mariners broke the game open with a four-run sixth against Luther Hackman. Suzuki doubled in the first run, Boone had a sacrifice fly, Ruben Sierra had an RBI infield single and Cameron added an RBI double.

Seattle added two more in the seventh, with Suzuki tripling in a run.

In his second start since coming off the disabled list because of a strained left shoulder, Smith went five innings and gave up four runs -- three earned -- on eight hits.

"I thought he threw the ball more like he usually does," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "He could have had better luck, but he would have had to pitch a very low-hit game to have a chance the way Moyer pitched tonight."