The Seattle lefty stayed on track to meet his goal of having a solid second half, pitching seven solid innings as the Mariners sent the sloppy Boston Red Sox to their season worst seventh straight loss, 4-1 Monday.
“I feel like the progression I’ve made has gotten better. The last few years I’ve struggled after the All-Star break,” Vargas said. “That I haven’t had as many struggles is definitely a plus. I’m able to keep making adjustments. I’ve been able to keep myself together.”
Over the past three seasons, Vargas is 7-18 with a 5.37 ERA in the season half. This year, he is 6-2 with a 3.28 ERA since the All-Star break.
The Red Sox botched two key plays and fell to 0-7 on their road trip. They’ve been outscored 58-16 in that span.
“We made the miscues that gave them two runs and that’s all she wrote,” Boston manager Bobby Valentine said.
Vargas (14-9) allowed one run and six hits, walked no one and struck out five. He is the first Mariners pitcher other than Felix Hernandez to win at least 14 games since 2003.
Tom Wilhelmsen worked the ninth to pick up his 23rd save in 26 opportunities.
The Mariners have won 10 of their last 12 games at Safeco Field.
Clay Buchholz (11-5) took the loss. He went seven innings, giving up three earned runs, six hits while walking one and striking out eight.
Buchholz and the wobbly Boston defense conspired to undo the Red Sox in the Mariners’ four-run fourth inning.
Buchholz got in trouble after Franklin Gutierrez beat out an infield single. He then walked Kyle Seager and, on back-to-back pitches, gave up RBI single by John Jaso and Justin Smoak to right that gave Seattle a 2-1 lead.
The Red Sox fell apart after that.
The Red Sox scored a twoout run in the first. Dustin Pedroia had a ground-rule double for the 1,000th hit in his sixth full season and Cody Ross singled.
NOTES: Notes: Pedroia has matched his season high with a 14-game hitting streak. He has had three hitting streaks this season of 13 games or more … Boston DH David Ortiz has played one game since July 18 because of his two stints on the disabled list for a strained Achilles.
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