Righty Farquhar impresses Wedge in scoreless debut

CLEVELAND -- Danny Farquhar made his Mariners debut on Saturday and it couldn't have gone better, with the right-hander throwing 2 2/3 innings of perfect ball with five strikeouts in Seattle's 5-4 loss to the Indians.

Farquhar, called up Friday from Triple-A Tacoma, stranded two inherited runners that belonged to starter Joe Saunders when he entered with one out in the sixth, and he proceeded to blank the Indians in the seventh and eighth as well.

"I was a little nervous, but it was nice to get the rust off," said the 5-foot-9, 180-pound pitcher from Florida. "It's been five days since I've thrown. I felt pretty good out there."

Helping Saunders was his first order of business, after Seattle's starter had given up two runs in the sixth and left with two on.

"My main goal is to not allow anybody else's runners. That always [stinks]," Farquhar said. "I was just happy to get out of that situation and continue to throw strikes. It went well."

No argument there from manager Eric Wedge.

"That was better than we saw this spring, and we saw him really good this spring. And he's been very good in Triple-A," Wedge said prior to Sunday's game. "But it was very nice to see him step up yesterday. He just really was aggressive, went right after them, pitched with confidence with all his pitches, which helped him be effective against both right- and left-handers. Very impressive."

Farquhar was acquired from the Yankees last July in the Ichiro Suzuki trade and was called up by the Mariners this week to help a bullpen that was depleted when Hector Noesi had to make a spot start for Aaron Harang on Thursday in New York.