Mariners Relievers Relay 4-2 Defeat To White Sox Wells Boosts His Record To 8-1 With Help From Bullpen Friends

On paper, back in spring training, this was the way the Seattle bullpen was supposed to operate - like a relay team, one man handing off to the next.

Bobby Ayala to Mike Jackson to Norm Charlton to victory.

“We envisioned it,” manager Lou Piniella said Saturday, “we just couldn’t get them all healthy.”

Against the staggering Chicago White Sox, the Mariners won their third consecutive game for the first time since mid-April, riding that bullpen the final 3 innings to a 4-2 victory that was as simple as any the Mariners could have drawn up on paper.

“I let Lou do the envisioning,” said Charlton, who struck out the side in the ninth inning for his 12th save. “But this is the way it’s supposed to work. Lee (Guetterman), Bobby, Jackson and me, in and out. Nobody throws more than 10-12 pitches. You can pitch every day that way.

“Nobody has to throw two, three innings. You stay sharp. You stay fresh.”

Ayala’s return from the disabled list - and the retooling of Seattle’s bullpen - has coincided with three consecutive solid starts from the Mariners rotation. And that, in turn, has helped the team win three games in a row since losing center fielder Ken Griffey Jr.

“Good pitching makes it look easier than it is,” Piniella said, “and after all the games we’d had to win with offense this season, it’s good to win with pitching. We left a lot of runners on base, but our pitching made four runs stand up.”

Starting pitcher Bob Wells, a reliefcorps alumni, handed Chicago its eighth consecutive loss and continued an impressive streak of his own. Since moving from long relief to the rotation, Wells has started four games and won each.

For the season, the Yakima righthander is an eye-popping 8-1, with a 3.27 earned run average.

Wells went 5-2/3 innings, threw a career-high 110 pitches and then watched his former bullpen mates finish up. He handed over a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning, with two outs and two runners on base for Ozzie Guillen.

Guetterman retired Guillen, and in the top of the seventh, rookie Andy Sheets singled home an insurance run.

“It was a good game to watch on national television,” Piniella said. “We played well, we pitched well. But this league, it’s like the NBA. The game starts in the sixth inning.”

By the sixth, Seattle had built a lead on RBI singles from Jay Buhner, Joey Cora and Dan Wilson while Wells held off the White Sox. After Guetterman avoided one jam, he created another - giving up a walk and a single to open the Chicago seventh inning.

Which brought up Frank Thomas.

Piniella went to Ayala, who a night earlier had pitched for the first time since April 22. Ayala got Thomas, then got Harold Baines on a double-play ground ball.

Ayala opened the eighth inning and struck out Robin Ventura with his 12th pitch. Piniella went to Jackson. Why?

“Bobby hasn’t pitched in six weeks,” Piniella said. “I’ve finally got these guys healthy - the last thing I want to do is overwork ‘em. A dozen pitches, three hitters, that’s all I wanted today.”

Jackson threw 11 pitches, retired two hitters. The game went to the ninth inning. Charlton time.

The left-hander threw 16 pitches and struck out the side.

Meacham re-routed

An odd thing happened to Rusty Meacham en route to the Tacoma Rainiers - he wound up on the roster of the Mariners.

Meacham, the 28-year-old righthander Seattle acquired from Kansas City for minor-league outfielder Jose Amado, was supposed to go from Class AAA Omaha to Class AAA Tacoma.

Manager Lou Piniella re-routed Meacham, right into the Seattle bullpen Saturday night.

Mariners 4, White Sox 2

Seattle AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Cora 2b 6 1 2 1 0 0 .274 ARodriguez ss 3 0 1 0 2 0 .345 EMartinez dh 4 1 0 0 1 3 .350 Buhner rf 3 1 2 1 2 0 .301 Sorrento 1b 4 0 1 0 0 2 .322 DWilson c 5 0 2 1 0 1 .306 Bragg lf 2 0 0 0 1 2 .267 a-Sojo ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 .211 b-Strange ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .190 MMartinez lf 0 0 0 0 1 0 .143 Sheets 3b 5 1 2 1 0 0 .300 Amaral cf 2 0 1 0 3 0 .246 Totals 35 4 11 4 10 9

Chicago AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Phillips lf 4 0 2 1 1 1 .313 DaMartinez cf 2 0 0 0 2 0 .333 FThomas 1b 3 0 0 0 1 0 .345 Baines dh 3 1 1 1 1 0 .312 Ventura 3b 4 0 0 0 0 1 .271 Tartabull rf 4 0 1 0 0 1 .222 Karkovice c 3 0 0 0 0 1 .224 c-Kreuter ph-c 1 0 0 0 0 0 .216 Durham 2b 4 1 2 0 0 2 .275 Guillen ss 3 0 0 0 0 1 .268 d-Martin ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .400 Totals 32 2 6 2 5 8

Seattle 001 110 100 - 4 Chicago 000 110 000 - 2

a-announced for Bragg in the 7th. b-struck out for Sojo in the 7th. c-grounded out for Karkovice in the 8th. d-struck out for Guillen in the 9th.

E-Phillips (4), FThomas (4). LOBSeattle 15, Chicago 8. 2B-Sheets (5), Durham (16). HR-Baines (12) off BWells. RBIsCora (20), Buhner (62), DWilson (49), Sheets (6), Phillips (42), Baines (54). SB-MMartinez (2). CS-Bragg (4), Amaral (2). S-Sorrento. GIDP ARodriguez, Baines.

Runners left in scoring position-Seattle 9 (Cora, ARodriguez, EMartinez, Sorrento 3, Sheets, Amaral 2); Chicago 4 (FThomas, Baines 2, Guillen).

Runners moved up-EMartinez, Guillen.

DP-Seattle 1 (Cora, ARodriguez and Sorrento); Chicago 1 (Guillen, Durham and FThomas).

Seattle IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA BWells W,8-1 5-2/3 5 2 2 4 3 110 3.27 Guetterman 1/3 1 0 0 1 0 15 4.15 Ayala 1-1/3 0 0 0 0 1 12 10.66 MJackson 2/3 0 0 0 0 1 11 5.13 Charlton S,12 1 0 0 0 0 3 16 2.88

Chicago IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA AFernandez L,6-4 5 8 3 3 5 5 122 3.78 Levine 1 1 1 1 1 1 20 9.00 LThomas 1/3 1 0 0 0 0 4 2.89 Simas 1-2/3 1 0 0 2 3 33 4.03 RHernandez 1 0 0 0 2 0 20 1.24

Levine pitched to 1 batter in the 7th, Guetterman pitched to 2 batters in the 7th.

Inherited runners-scored-Guetterman 2-0, Ayala 2-0, LThomas 1-0, Simas 2-1.

T-3:37. A-27,036 (44,321).