Mariners swing into Lester’s hands

It was a matchup of two teams, with two different hitting philosophies and two very different records. Could there be a correlation? While the Boston Red Sox waited, watched and worked counts in every at-bat, trying to get that perfect pitch to hit, the Seattle Mariners hacked and hurried their way through each plate appearance and were ultimately humbled by Tacoma native Jon Lester in a 4-0 loss Monday at Safeco Field. It was a study in contrasts of hitting approaches. Boston hitters showing great patience with Mariners starter Jarrod Washburn, driving up his pitch count and driving him from the game after just 5† innings and 112 pitches. Meanwhile, the Mariners made a tough pitcher almost unhittable, swinging early, swinging often and many times not even swinging at strikes. “That’s kind of the nature of our ballclub,”... [read full story]