Mariners toughest in DH era (1973) to hit against

Despite last winter’s $240 million acquisition of free agent Robinson Cano, Lloyd McClendon’s Mariners are the worst team in the American League at getting on base — despite sitting 10 games above .500 (68-58). With a .303 OBP, the Mariners whack the ball more like a deadball era team  — the 1906 White Sox, aka “The Hitless Wonders,” had a .301 OBP — than one from the era of the designated hitter.

But as generally feeble as the Mariners are at poking out base hits (14^th in the AL) and scoring runs (12^th), they are resourceful in making up for those shortcomings. This is especially true of their pitching, which is not only excellent, but historically spectacular.

Whether ranked by opponent batting average, ERA, WHIP of any other measurement, the Mariners are among the toughest teams to bat against in the past 50 years. Start with their .225 opponent batting average.

The 1966 Dodgers sported three future Hall of Famers (Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton) and yielded a .236 opponent average — without having to face designated hitters. The 1971 Baltimore Orioles, the last club with four 20-game winners (Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally), allowed a .239 average. Again, no DHs.

The 1973 Oakland A’s trotted out two Cy Young winners, Catfish Hunter and Vida Blue, and a Hall of Fame reliever, Rollie Fingers. Opponents batted .241. The 2003 Yankees featured Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Mariano Rivera, all in their prime. Foes hit .265.

Seattle’s .225 OBA is equal to the .225 averages posted by the 1975 Los Angeles Dodgers and 1986 Houston Astros. Sticking to the AL because it has the DH, these are the teams with the lowest opponent batting averages since the league adopted the DH 42 years ago.

Seattle’s top three starters (Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Chris Young) have combined for a 37-16 record and 2.50 ERA, the lowest by a starting trio in the American League. As a consequence, the Mariners have a 2.93 team ERA, placing the club on track to break the franchise record of 3.54, set in the 116-win season of 2001. But that’s not the interesting part.

The last AL team to finish with a sub-3.00 ERA was the 1974 Oakland Athletics, that year’s winner of the World Series. Those Athletics, again featuring Hunter and Blue, posted a 2.96 ERA – to Seattle’s current 2.93. That’s the lowest by an American League team in the designated hitter era.

On Base + Slugging? Since 1973, Seattle’s .634 leads the 1981 Yankees (.636) for the best in the DH era. WHIP? The Mariners sit at 1.131. The closest: 1.166 by this year’s Athletics.

Iwakuma’s latest

Iwakuma recorded a single-season high in strikeouts Tuesday with 11 in a 5-2 win at Philadelphia. He didn’t walk a batter, the 12^th time this season sans a BB. With that, Iwakuma became the seventh pitcher in Mariners history to produce a game with 11 or more K’s and zero walks.

Since his major league debut in 2005, Hernandez has thrown seven such games (one this season April 11), topped by a 13-strikeout, no-walk game against San Diego May 22, 2011. Randy Johnson (1989-98) had six such games, including a 19-strikeout, zero-walk complete-game effort that he lost to the Oakland Athletics 4-1 June 24, 1997 at the Kingdome. Mariners pitchers with the most games of 11 or more K’s and no walks:

Paxton meets Hibbard

In the fourth inning of Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Phillies, the Mariners essentially gave the game away with an error, a wild pitch and a passed ball that led to three Philadelphia runs. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that was only the sixth time in Mariners history — last time Sept. 1, 2012 vs. the Angels — that they had an error, a wild pitch and a passed ball in the same inning.

Seattle starter James Paxton threw the wild pitch and committed the error Wednesday. In only one of the other five games with an error, wild pitch and passed ball in one inning was the pitcher responsible for both the error and wild pitch. Greg Hibbard made both gaffes May 19, 1994 in the third inning of a 5-4 win over Texas in the Kingdome.

Hibbard is also infamous in Mariners lore by allowing a franchise-record 15 hits (and 10 runs) to the Oakland A’s May 24, 1994 — his next start after that horrendous third inning against the Rangers. No wonder Lou Pinella didn’t want him back.