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  Wednesday, Apr. 12 7:05pm ET
Sele hurls fifth career shutout
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

DETROIT (AP) -- As he walked to the mound, Aaron Sele was thinking this might be a good night. The new grass at Comerica Park was tall, thick and soft.

Sele, getting 14 outs on grounders, pitched a three-hitter for his fifth career shutout and Raul Ibanez drove in two runs as the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 4-0 Wednesday in Comerica's first night game.

Aaron Sele
Aaron Sele threw 101 pitches in shutting out the Tigers, 67 of them strikes.

"The key tonight was the grass," Sele said. "It's tall, and I got a lot of ground balls tonight. Having the infield turn two double plays helped, too."

Sele (1-0), who signed as a free agent in January after going 18-9 last season for Texas, kept the Tigers off balance with a combination of good control and changing speeds.

"He makes you swing at his pitch," said Detroit's Brad Ausmus, who went hitless in three at-bats -- two grounders and a routine flyball. "He was always on the corners and changes speeds real well."

The Tigers, who broke a five-game losing streak by winning Comerica's opener Tuesday, didn't get a runner past first base. Sele, who pitched the 10th complete game of his career, had six 1-2-3 innings with the aid of the double plays.

"With the Tigers, you never know what they're going to do," Sele said. "They've got a lot of really good hitters. I kept thinking them might break out at any time. But, anytime you're facing major league hitters you've got to throw strikes, and I did that tonight."

Of the 101 pitches Sele threw, 67 were strikes.

"He got all his pitches over, got ahead and made the Tigers put it in play," Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. "He only had one base on balls. That's impressive."

It was the first shutout this year against the Tigers. They were blanked a major league-high 12 times last season.

"We really didn't drive the ball tonight," Detroit manager Phil Garner said. "I didn't see many adjustments in our hitters. We're not being very consistent at the plate. We must learn to be tougher outs."

Garner also said he has talked with head groundskeeper Heather Nabozny about the length of the grass.

"We'll see in a few weeks how the grass takes," Garner said. "We might cut it shorter then."

Detroit starter Dave Mlicki (0-2), the Tigers' best pitcher last season, gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings.

Mark McLemore and Alex Rodriguez singled, giving Seattle runners at first and third with one out in the first. John Olerud singled McLemore home and Edgar Martinez gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with an RBI grounder.

Ibanez, who entered as a defensive replacement in the fifth, had a two-out RBI single making it 4-0 in the sixth.

Game notes
Seattle also had the last shutout against the Tigers. Freddy Garcia blanked Detroit on Aug. 24, 1999, at Safeco Field. ... Speed has become an important part of Seattle's game now that Ken Griffey Jr. is gone. Twice this season, Mariners runners have scored from first on doubles. "I saw times last year when guys on second couldn't score on a double," said one scout, who asked that his name not be used. ... After drawing a capacity opening-day crowd of 39,168, the Tigers drew just 21,405. The temperature at game time was 44 degrees, four degrees warmer than on the opener. ... The Tigers, who had one error, have committed 11 errors in their eight games. Ten have come in the last six games.
 


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