Piniella Vows There’ll Be Some Changes Made Brewers Work Over Mariners Pitching Staff To Offset Power Display By Buhner, Wilson

Forget their fast start. Forget their win-loss record. And feel free to overlook their game on Sunday.

Change is coming to the Seattle Mariners - and given Lou Piniella’s outlook after a 16-9 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, it is coming at a dead run.

“We need pitching, we need help in the bullpen and I’m going to make some recommendations,” Piniella said.

Roster alterations won’t stop there, either.

After watching No. 5 starter Paul Menhart give up four runs in the first two innings - then blow every bit of an 8-4 lead in the fifth - Piniella was asked if Menhart would start again in five days.

“No,” he said tersely.

No game in which the opposition scores 16 runs is a good time to discuss pitching, but it was the kind of pitching Sunday that beat Seattle. It was, in baseball terms, situational suicide.

“Every time we had the chance to get out of an inning without too much damage, we gave up a big hit,” Piniella said.

“A game like that just drains you emotionally,” catcher Dan Wilson said.

Offensively, the Mariners did more than enough - two home runs, one of them a grand slam, from Jay Buhner, two more by Wilson. And while Milwaukee lost leads of 2-0 and 4-2, the Mariners blew the biggest lead of the game after going ahead, 8-4.

“We kept coming,” Wilson said, shrugging.

Indeed, this one was tied again at 8-8. Then at 9-9.

Not only couldn’t the Mariners hold the Brewers, they didn’t even make it tough for Milwaukee to come back - issuing 10 walks and hitting two batters. By game’s end, 20 of the final 30 Brewers who came to the plate reached base.

Half the runs Milwaukee scored were scored by men who either walked or were hit by pitches.

When Piniella recommends moves, it may be hard to stop him. Menhart has a 9.86 earned run average, Edwin Hurtado’s is 8.34, Tim Davis has one of 7.36 and Bob Wolcott is at 6.33.

And no one could stop the Brewers. Ex-Mariner Fernando Vina, who’d played in only 11 games this season, went 3-for-5 with a pair of triples and five RBI. Matt Mieske pulled a ball down the left-field line that flew into a gale-force wind, blew fair and became a two-run home run.

Looking a bit shell-shocked, Menhart tried to explain what had happened.

“Everything that could go wrong did,” he said, “capped by a foul ball that became a home run. I just feel unlucky. Everybody needs a break sometimes, and I can’t get one. You get a little luck, your confidence builds, you start making better pitches …”

Piniella wanted to hear none of that. Twice he stormed out of the dugout and chewed Menhart out on the mound.

“I was trying to get him a win and trying to get some innings out of him,” Piniella said. “We were short in the bullpen, we had an 8-4 lead in the fifth… ” “He kept falling behind. He can’t locate his pitches. At least he hasn’t. We’ve got to make some changes.”

After winning a pair of one-run games in which the Brewers gave away runs, the Mariners scored nine times and were blown out, despite making the most of eight hits.

Against Brewers starter Steve Sparks, Seattle had five hits in the first 4-1/3 innings - two home runs by Wilson, two by Buhner and Luis Sojo’s double. Sparks left trailing, 8-4. Before Menhart got two outs, the game was tied.

And it got uglier.

Reliever Davis walked three men and allowed four hits in 1-2/3 innings. Rafael Carmona was touched for two hits, two walks and two runs while getting just one out. Veteran Mike Jackson couldn’t stop the Brewers either, though he hurt them, hitting both Jesse Levis and Jeff Cirillo in the eighth. Both scored on Vina’s second triple.

As a goodwill gesture in the ninth, Mike Fetters hit Ken Griffey Jr. in the foot with a fastball.

Brewers 16, Mariners 9

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 4 1 0 0 1 0 .217 Sojo ss 5 1 2 0 0 0 .296 Griffey Jr cf 0 1 0 1 3 0 .241 EMartinz dh 4 1 0 0 1 2 .337 Buhner rf 4 2 2 5 0 1 .284 Sorrento 1b 3 1 0 0 1 1 .231 RDavis 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .286 DWilson c 4 2 3 3 0 0 .284 ADiaz lf 4 0 0 0 0 0 .224 Totals 32 9 8 9 6 4

Milwaukee AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cirillo 3b 3 3 1 0 1 0 .296 Loretta 3b 0 0 0 0 0 0 .364 Vina 2b 5 1 3 5 1 0 .372 Seitzer dh 4 3 2 2 2 1 .325 GVaughn lf 3 2 3 3 1 0 .280 TWard lf-rf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .129 JsValentin ss 3 1 3 4 2 0 .301 Mieske rf 4 1 1 2 1 0 .321 Matheny c 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 Levis c 4 0 1 0 0 0 .333 1-Hulse pr-lf 0 1 0 0 0 0 .184 Listach cf 4 3 2 0 1 0 .306 Unroe 1b 4 1 0 0 1 2 .333 Totals 35 16 16 16 10 3

Seattle 020 241 000 9 8 1 Milwaukee 220 042 33x 16 16 1

1-ran for Levis in the 8th.

E-TDavis (1), Unroe (1). LOBSeattle 4, Milwaukee 9. 2B-Sojo (4), Seitzer (4). 3B-Cirillo (1), Vina 2 (3), JsValentin (3). HR- GVaughn (8) off Menhart; Mieske (3) off Menhart; Buhner 2 (6) off Sparks 2; DWilson 2 (7) off Sparks 2. RBIsGriffey Jr (18), Buhner 5 (23), DWilson 3 (20), Vina 5 (9), Seitzer 2 (20), GVaughn 3 (23), JsValentin 4 (15), Mieske 2 (11). SB-Seitzer (1), JsValentin (4), Listach (8). CS-Sojo (1), Vina (1). S-Cirillo. SF-Griffey Jr, GVaughn. GIDPEMartinez, Levis 2.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 2 (EMartinez, ADiaz); Milwaukee 7 (Seitzer, TWard, Mieske 2, Levis 3).

Runners moved up-Mieske.

DP-Seattle 2 (Cora, Sojo and Sorrento), (Sojo and Sorrento); Milwaukee 2 (Levis and Vina), (Loretta, Vina and Unroe).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Menhart 4-1/3 9 8 8 4 1 108 9.86 TDavis L,0-1 1-2/3 4 3 3 3 0 36 7.36 Carmona 1/3 0 2 2 2 0 10 4.50 MJackson 1-2/3 3 3 3 1 2 38 4.50

Milwaukee IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Sparks 4-1/3 5 8 8 5 2 86 7.88 Potts W,1-1 2-1/3 3 1 1 1 2 41 5.68 Boze 1-1/3 0 0 0 0 0 11 0.00 Fetters 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 3.52

TDavis pitched to 1 batter in the 7th.

Inherited runners-scored-Carmona 1-0, MJackson 3-3.

IBBoff Carmona (Vina) 1, off TDavis (Mieske) 1. HBPby MJackson (Cirillo), by MJackson (Levis), by Fetters (Griffey Jr). WP- Sparks, Potts.

T-3:38. A-19,717 (53,192).