Krueger’s Good Pitching Gives Mariners A Big Lift
Six days ago, the Seattle Mariners wanted to cut back to a 10-man pitching staff - adding an outfielder to their roster - and Bill Krueger swallowed hard.
“He’d have been a candidate,” Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. “Then we had to use a lot of pitching in the Angels series and we decided to stay with 11 pitchers. It turned out to be a wise decision.”
A 37-year-old journeyman is always a candidate for departure whenever a pitching move must be made, but Sunday Krueger was asked to step into the rotation in place of ailing Randy Johnson.
Needing a strong game just to show he deserved his roster spot, Krueger gave the Mariners 5-2/3 good innings against Oakland, handing off a two-run lead in what became a laugher - and a 15-8 victory for Seattle.
“My performance as a starting pitcher here was sub-par,” Krueger admitted afterward, “and I wasn’t sure I was going to get another chance. When it came, I grabbed it.”
And before the Mariners bats erupted for Seattle’s second 15-run game in a row, Krueger outdueled Oakland ace Todd Stottlemyre before leaving in the sixth inning ahead, 4-2.
“It was a game in the sixth inning,” Krueger said.
It became something else, indeed - a 16-hit Seattle assault that included another big game by Mike Blowers and Tino Martinez and a strong supporting effort from most everyone with a bat.
If anything dampened a win that gave the Mariners two of the three games here, it was the question of what’s wrong with Johnson - and what’s wrong with the Seattle bullpen.
“Every time you think you’ve put that team away, it comes back,” Blowers said of the A’s. “That’s not our ‘pen, it’s just that team. At home, they have confidence.”
“Our bullpen is tired, so is theirs,” Piniella said. “That showed in the last couple of innings.”
In the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, the Mariners and A’s relievers combined to allow 17 runs Sunday, and Bill Risley, Bobby Ayala and Jeff Nelson each got dinged a little in the process.
Blowers tossed out another four RBI game, complete with a three-run home run in the seventh inning, his 12th. The Tino added three RBI and Dan Wilson and Rich Amaral drove home two runs each.
“Maybe we’ve turned it around here in Oakland,” Piniella said. “This isn’t an easy place to play, and to come out of here with two wins, to go home with a 3-3 record on the trip after losing the first two games in Anaheim, that’s a positive.”
No one came away happier than Krueger, who had made three previous starts for the Mariners and not lasted more than four innings in any of them.
“He gave us a lift, got us into the sixth inning with a lead,” Blowers said.
“He can pitch long relief, he can spot start and today he did a nice job for us,” Piniella said. “We needed innings and he gave them to us.”
In 5-2/3 innings, Krueger was hardly unhittable - the A’s piled up nine hits against him - but that is a fact of life for the veteran.
“My game isn’t strikeouts, I’m going to make them put the ball in play,” Krueger said. “Baserunners aren’t runs. Baserunners don’t bother me. Runs do.”
Krueger didn’t walk a man, struck out four and was touched only for one earned run in slicing his earned run average from 7.50 to 5.60 and running his record to 2-0 this season.
The victory let Seattle match it’s longest winning streak - two games - since May, pulled them to within a game of .500 (46-47) and inched them to within two games of the new York Yankees and the American League’s wild card playoff spot.
In their last 20 games, the Mariners are 11-9.
Now, as they close in on the return date of Ken Griffey Jr., the team must wait for a diagnosis today on Johnson’s shoulder.
“We’re opening we get him back for the weekend,” Piniella said.
“When we got 15 runs, I thought Randy might be wishing he’d been able to start today,” Krueger said.
As for the bullpen, the arms are dragging and Piniella acknowledged his relief corps is on its reserve tank.
“I told Tim Belcher (tonight’s starting pitcher), don’t be looking into the dugout for help,” Piniella said. “Just keep pitching.”