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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

M’S Ride Long Ball Past Sox But Yet Another Ineffective Starter Forces Seattle To Rally From Behind

Larry Larue Tacoma News Tribune

When Jim Fregosi managed the California Angels, he couldn’t stand Rod Carew, whose style of hitting - slapping singles to the opposite field - drove Fregosi crazy.

He moved Carew to the leadoff spot in his lineup. Asked why, Fregosi dead-panned: “To get him out of the way early.”

And so it is with the Seattle Mariners and their starting rotation. Each night, manager Lou Piniella sends one member of that rotation to the mound - as much to get him out of the way as anything.

Friday against Boston, it was Paul Menhart starting, pitching 3-1/3 innings and getting out of the way so the Seattle Mariners could come back from a 5-1 deficit to beat the Red Sox 9-6.

When the dust settled, the Mariners’ five-man rotation was transformed again. Reliever Bob Wells, who won this one in relief, will join the rotation. Tacoma Rainiers right-hander Matt Wagner will probably join the rotation, too, on the trip to Cleveland that begins on Tuesday.

“And once we get Bobby Ayala back in the bullpen, I may move Rafael Carmona into the rotation, too,” Piniella said.

Small wonder. It is almost as if Seattle’s games are being pitched backwards. The starter goes three or four innings and hands it over to the bullpen. In the 15 games since Randy Johnson’s departure, starters have pitched seven innings just once - and seven times haven’t gone as far as four innings.

Next time through the rotation, new arms will get the chance to do more.

What has saved the Mariners during that stretch - and they’re 8-7 without Johnson - has been the bullpen and the offense.

After Menhart was touched for three Boston home runs, Wells sunk his jaws into this game and didn’t let go for 4-2/3 innings, and when Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez each hit three-run home runs, Wells was rewarded for his tenacity with his fourth triumph of the season.

That’s as many victories as any current member of the Seattle rotation has.

Told he was now a starting pitcher, Wells beamed.

“Great!” he said. “Wherever they want me to pitch is fine.”

The victory that let Seattle finish the month of May with a 12-14 record came in a game in which the Mariners fell behind after Menhart had faced one batter - though Griffey Jr. nearly robbed Dwayne Hosey of his first home run of the season. Racing back in center field, Griffey and the ball seemed to clear the wall at the same time, but as the glove touched the ball, Griffey’s body hit the fence.

He came down empty, slammed his glove into the fence and watched Hosey circle the bases.

By the fifth inning, the Mariners’ frustrations had mounted and they trailed 5-1. Then it was Kevin Kennedy’s turn to have a starting pitcher drive him mad - Vaughn Eshelman lost all control in the fifth inning, walking three consecutive batters.

“That is not major league pitching,” Kennedy said. “A guy breezing along throws 12 balls in 13 pitches? I’ve never seen that, but then I’ve seen a lot of things this year I’ve never seen before.”

Seattle pushed one run home on Rich Amaral’s fielder’s choice. Three scored when Griffey homered into the upper deck in right field. Of the 51 balls hit there in Kingdome history, nine have come off the bat of Griffey.

“They were in control. We had - what - two hits?” Griffey said. “We had the chance to get back in it and we had to take it.”

Griffey’s bolt tied the game. Rodriguez’s broke it open.

Joey Cora opened the seventh inning with a triple, pinch-hitter Darren Bragg walked and then shortstop Rodriguez hit his 10th home run, good for his 38th, 39th and 40th RBIs in his 37th game of the year.

“We had high expectations for Alex and he’s exceeded them all,” Piniella said.

It was a comeback deserving of an attendance milestone, and the Mariners got one of those, too. The Kingdome crowd of 29,119 pushed season attendance to 1,028,086 after 31 home games. That’s nine games earlier than the previous club record for the earliest-to-a-million plateau.

Media missing Edgar

Edgar Martinez is pounding two-base hits at an unprecedented pace in major league baseball and - yawn - the media coverage has not yet begun to pick up on the run for immortality.

“When you’re close to a batting title, people notice,” Martinez said. “When you hit home runs, people notice. Doubles are quiet.”

Not unlike the Seattle Mariners designated hitter, who has two batting championships to his credit and last year led the majors with 52 doubles in 145 games.

This season, Martinez is batting .349 and in his first 51 games has more doubles (29) than singles (24).

Beginning play on Friday, Martinez had a dozen more doubles than anyone in baseball and was on pace to hit 92 doubles this season - 25 more than the major league single-season record set by Earl Webb in 1931.

“I like doubles, they get you in scoring position and they drive in more runs than singles,” Martinez said.

If he were on a similar pace to shatter Roger Maris’ big-league home run record, the attention might be overwhelming. But doubles? “I haven’t thought about the record because it’s so early in the season,” Martinez said. “In this game you can get going good, get in a good groove, and then something changes and it’s gone. If I’m close in August or September, then I’ll think about the record.

“It would be nice to do something no one has ever done.”

Baseball historians say that Webb set the big-league record because quite often he hit balls that could have been triples but chose to stop at second. Martinez was asked if, on the last day of the season in a meaningless game, he would stop at second to set the record rather than try for a triple.

“I’m not fast enough to get to third base, anyway,” The Edgar said. “I’d pull up at second base and grab my leg if I had to.”